CIHM 
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iCMH 

Collection  de 
microfiches 
(monographies) 


Canadian  Inatitiita  for  Hlitorieal  I 


I  /  Inatitut  Canadian  da  mkrocapwductloni  MaMfiqiiac 


1995 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  technique  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best  original 
copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this  copy  which 
may  be  bibllographlcally  unique,  which  may  alter  any  of 
the  Images  In  the  reproduction,  or  which  may 
significantly  change  the  usual  method  of  filming  are 
checked  below. 


D 


D 
D 


D 


Coloured  covsre  / 
Couveituts  de  couleur 


I     I     Covers  damaged/ 

' — '     CouvailuresndorjTiagte 

I     I     Covers  tBstoredandtor  laminated/ 
' — '     Couvertuis  restauite  et/ou  pelllcuMe 

I     I      Cover  title  missing /LetHredecouverture  manque 

rn     Coloured  maps/ Canes  gtegiaphlques  en  couleur 

r~\     Cotoured  Ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  Ijtack)/ 

Encre  de  couleur  (l.e.  autre  que  lilsue  ou  noire) 

I     I     Cokxjred  plates  and/or  illustrations  / 
Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 

I     I      Bound  v*i  other  material/ 
— '      ReM  avec  d'autres  documents 


Only  ediUon  available/ 
SeuleMitiondisponlbte 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin  /  La  reliure  serrie  peut 
causer  da  I'ombre  ou  de  la  distoision  le  long  de 
la  marge  intirieure. 

Blank  leaves  abujd  during  rBstoratons  may  appear 
within  the  te;;i.  Whenever  possible,  these  have 
been  omitted  from  liming  /  II  se  peut  que  ceitalnes 
pages  blanches  ajoutSes  kxs  d'une  restauratkm 
appaiaisaant  dans  le  tsxte,  mais,  loraqus  oela  «tait 
poeslile,  CSS  pages  n'ont  pis  M  flmias. 


L'liistltut  a  microfilmd  le  meilleur  examplaire  qu'il  lui  a 
6X6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details  de  cet  exem- 
plaire  qui  sont  peut-ttre  uniques  du  point  de  vue  blbli- 
ographkgue,  qui  peuvent  modifier  une  Image  reprodulte, 
ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une  modifkatlons  dans  la  m^th- 
ode  normale  de  fllmage  sont  indk)u4s  ci-dessous. 

I     I     Cokxjrsd  pages/ Pages  de  couleur 

I     I      Pages  damaged/ Pages  endommagtes 

I     I      Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
' — '     Pages  lestaurtes  et/ou  pelHcuMes 

[7/^     Pages  discokxjrad,  stained  or  foxed  / 
^'^      Pages  decok)ries,tachet«esoupjqutes 

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r^     Showthrough/ Transparence 

I     I     Quality  ol  print  varies/ 

' — '     Quallteinigaisderimpresskxt 

I     I      Includes  supplementary  material/ 
—      ComprenddumatirieisuppWmentaire 

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feuillet  d'en^ta,  une  pelure,  etc.,  ont  M  filmaes 
a  nouveau  de  tafon  a  obtenir  la  mellleure 
image  possible. 

I  I  Opposing  pages  with  varying  colouration  or 
' — '  discoiouratlons  are  filmed  twk:e  to  ensure  the 
best  possible  image  /  Les  pages  s'opposant 
ayant  des  colorations  variat>les  ou  des  dteol- 
orations  sont  filmies  deux  fois  afin  d'obtenir  la 
meilleur  image  possible. 


r~|      AddWonalcommenls/ 

' — '      CommanlaiiessuppMfnenlains: 


Thi>  ittm  i<  f ibiMd  « th*  raduction  ratio  chadud  bstew/ 

C<  docwMfit  Mt  film*  tu  tnix  dt  rMtiction  indiqiii  o^fasiaus. 

'OX  14X  tax 


22X 


»x 


12X 


1«X 


20X 


2SX 


Tha  copy  fllmad  har*  haa  baan  raproduead  thanka 
to  tha  ganaroaity  oft 

National  Library  of  Canada 


L'axamplaira  fllmt  lut  raproduit  grtea  t  la 
gtntroaitA  da: 

Bibliothiqua  nationale  du  Canada 


Tha  imagaa  appearing  hara  ara  tha  boat  quality 
poaaibia  eonaidaring  tha  condition  and  lagibility 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  liaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  apacif icaiiona. 


Original  eopiea  in  printed  papar  covara  ara  fllmad 
baginning  with  tha  front  eovar  and  anding  en 
tha  laat  page  with  a  printed  or  illuatratad  imprae- 
■ion,  or  tha  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  cepiea  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illuatratad  impraa- 
aien,  and  anding  on  the  lest  pege  with  a  printed 
o'  illuatratad  impreaaion. 


Lea  images  luivuntes  ont  txt  rsproduitai  avac  la 
plus  grand  soin.  compta  tenu  de  la  condition  at 
da  la  nanet*  da  I'eaempiaira  film*,  at  an 
conformita  avac  lea  conditions  du  conirai  da 
fllmaga. 

Lee  eaempleirea  erigineua  dent  le  eouvertura  an 
papier  eat  imprimOe  sent  filmaa  en  eommancani 
per  le  premier  plat  at  an  tarminant  soit  par  la 
darniAre  page  qui  comporta  una  emprainia 
d'Impreaalen  ou  d'illuatration.  soit  par  ia  second 
plat,  aalon  le  eaa.  Toua  lea  autraa  aaemplairas 
originauK  aent  tllmea  an  commancant  par  la 
pramitre  page  qui  compoRe  une  empreinte 
d'impreeaion  ou  d'iiluatration  at  an  tarminant  par 
la  damitre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 


The  laat  recorded  frame  on  eech  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  -^  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  ▼  Imeening  "END"I, 
whichever  appliea. 

Maps,  platea,  charta,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  lerge  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  comer,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bonom,  as  many  frames  ss 
required.  The  following  diegrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


Un  dea  symbolas  suivanta  apparaltra  sur  la 
darnlAre  image  de  cheque  microficha,  salon  la 
caa:  la  symbola  <^»'  aignifia  "A  SUIVRE".  la 
aymbola  ▼  signifie  "FIN". 

Lea  cartaa.  planchaa,  ubiaaux,  etc..  pauvent  itra 
filmea  i  dea  taux  de  reduction  difterenis. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  ttra 
reproduit  en  un  seul  cliche,  il  est  filma  a  partir 
de  Tangle  supdrieur  geuche,  de  geuche  *  droits, 
at  de  haut  an  b^i,  an  prenant  le  nombre 
d'Imegee  necesaeire.  Lea  diagrammea  suivanis 
illustrent  le  methode. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

MKiooon  moivnoH  mr  autr 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  3) 


U 


M     |2J 


IZ2 


g  la  izo 


11.8 


1.6 


1IU  CM  W«>.i  StTMl 
Woehwtli.  Nn  rorti       t.«OB      USA 
(7tl)  .•]  -  03(O  -  PhMM 
(7ta)  2W  -  SMa  -  Fn 


THE  ILLUMINATION  OP 
JOSEPH  KEELER:1,°'^ 


OR 


ON,  TO  THE  LANDI 


»»™»H.  B.IC11M.A,  M. 


Boaroic.  Stim. 


Rr^7S7 


rr 


CorrwoHTED  m  the  United  States  or  Ahbbica 
AMD  Canada,  I91A, 


CONTENTS 


CRAFTMB 

FAOB 

I.    Halcyon  D»ya  on  Prciqu' hie  Bay j 

II.    High  Ancestry  of  the  Keeler  Family ....  7 

in.    Hi.tory  of  Early  SetUement  at  the  Carrying 

!•••« .  11 

IV.    Joseph  Keeler  Visit,  the  Home  of  Hi«AncMtor.        U 
V.    Official  Report  to  Family  on  Paternal  Gen- 

e«logy ]g 

VI.    Discussion  on  Causes  of  High  Prices,  with 

Results ai 

VII.    Joseph   Keeler,   Student  of  Early  Canadian 

History j^ 

Vm.    When  Upper  Canada  Became  the  Dominant 

Partner ,. 

IX.    The  Heir  of  the  Keelers  under  a  Social  Cloud..  35 
X.    The  Professor   as   a   Student    of    Canadian 

Economics *  I 

XI.    Joseph  Keeler  Recalls  Commercial  and  Politic  J 

Events  of  Forty  Years 47 

Xn.    The  Btit  of  John  Keeler  from  Frenzied  Finance  «S 
Xni.    Rural    DepopuUtion    and    Urban    Overpop- 
ulation   -_ 

XIV.    The  Stress  of  Society  Functions  Has  Unforti- 

nate  Results jj 

XV.    The  Problem  of  High  Prices  Analysed  .. .  67 

XVI.    Mr.  Joseph  Keeler  Turns  Farmer 73 

Xm    The  Legal  Evolution  of  an  Agriculturist...  81 
XVm.    Halcyon  Days  Have  Come  Again  Down  on  the 

Lake  Shore a- 

XIX.    The  Philosopher's  Stone  Discovered gg 


FOREWOBD 

I  h«v«  TMd  With  km  inU    .  Dr.  Brvw'i  .n.«.~  -^ 
ing  cTUta  ^oUl  ™,  genomic .  .«*UW  tft^t  tt" 

loundQr  cono«wd.    In  the  pmence  o(  the  mort  awful  <r» 
•utherto  known  to  naddnd.  nothing  .ffonTIn  Wi^ 

intenwtion*!  rapect  and  mutiul  eMeem  -"-^ 

iMual  m-r  ^  Immvrattm  ^  Cm«da  h»  b«»ght  him  f^i 
^Ln  Tl'^^.  '^'^'^nui  p«blem.  of  life  «d  uA^ "hS 
witbn  the  l«t  half  century  have  put  upon  the  opTW. 
hitherto  unexampled  number  of  the  human  race.  ThZ^^ 
;r  "I'l^"^  ""*•*•  '"  -o"  libertrmo™^  fc 
food,  and  better  houring,  and  aU  of  the«  havrbTfolA 
perhap.  a.  neve,  before,  in  the  new  world.  AndyeTaJ^ 
ol«rv„  cannot  fail  to  be  .truck  with  that  ,t^Z>Z^ 
m^P-fon  today,  drawing  the  children  of  the  oriZu^ 
g~.t.  away  from  the  Und  «.d  into  the  citie.7wSchl^ 
"^  «em  to  po«»  an  almort  im^plicable  a  tZfcL 

For  «,me  year.  I>r.  B^.*  ha.  been  a  careful  rtudB^  nwl 
d^opuUtion  „d.  not  content  with  merely  ob«rving  pLn^ 
ena.ha.MnghttoertimateandtocrjtroIthem.    ^'^"""'^ 

mteerting  data  of  popuUUon.  overpopuUtion,  deoooulati^ 

May  thi.  Uttle  volume  '  dte  to  a  clo«r  .tudy  of  the*  orob. 
ta«.  m«^  a  thoughtful  person  both  ;„  the  S-^oTaH  b 
^  Umted  Sut«.  for  the  «me  problem,  .„  corfr^tin^  ^^ 
people,  and  are  found  on  both  dde.  of  the  line.  "°«  "" 

W.  T.  Stay     -:i, 
Bo«ON.  Mm.,  May  l.^m"*"^  ''^^  "^  ^      "^W 


PREFACE 

TU»  ii  •  (torjr  written  with  ■  Mnitc  piupon. 

The  pj»noinenon  b«hic  forced  at  thii  moment  upon  the  .tten- 
Uoo  of  .  popuUtion  of  10O.000.00O  in  the  United  SUfiS 
C«»d.,  pc«e«ln,  dmoet  iUimiUbl.  ««„  of  whnt  one  hZ 
*»dyem  ,y  wm  mortly  virgin  nil.  finding  itKlf  KtuJIy 
importing  foodtuff.  .t  high  pricey  mu.t  ineviubly  c«^Z^ 
»«u.n.ly  conc«ned  in  the  he  Jth.  pro.perity.  ,nd  the«>fo«te 
the  h.pp.neM  of  the  people,  to  «ek  -riourii.  for  .ucHX." 

During  the  pMtde«de.  with.  «rie.  of  «.  of  .ucce«iv.ly 
^^  "W  and  the  influx  of  »me  1.  0,000  immig,™^ 
l«gely  of  the  working  cU«e.,  there  h«  been  witn«T„ 
•gpegation  of  people  in  the  urban  centrei  of  the  United  SUtee 

i^e  the  totjl  mcrew  in  the  number  of  perwn.  culSva  ■' 
toe  Und  haa  been  rektively  amall. 

.J^  ""'.T^/  «ilway  conatruction,  of  induatrial  eipan«on 
«d  of  city  buddmg  have  given  tempo«,y  employment  ti^rk- 
men;  whUe  the  owortunitie.  for  the  centrali«Kl  inveatment  cl 
capital  have  suited  m  the  development  of  ^wculaUve  ente,. 
pnae.  and  m  the  diversion  of  both  public  attention  and  private 
^.tal  from  the  true  baai.  of  aU  w«lth,  the  cultivation  of  tto 

The  inevitable  outcome  of  th-^  Kveral  combined  cau«.  i. 

efcci.,  whKh.  though  unpleaaant  and  diatreMing  to  many,  wiU 
not  have  been  without  «dutary  and  beneficial  reault.  a  they 
aerve  to  turn  auch  again  toward  thoae  ewential  virtue,  and 
^iJt^u^"'  *""  ""  ***"  "»ooi«ted  with  .ucce«ful 

„f  Tlltu  ""  '"•  °"^°  °'  ^'  "*"  «"*  ""t  .ubatantW  citiaen. 
of  both  countries  lewlen  in  induatrij  enterpriae.  «id  in  the 


viB 


Pnfact 


•pplicatwn  of  acientifio  knowledge,  may  be  directed  through 
tte  penual  of  thia  itoiy  to  the  imperatixp  mitional  need  for 
their  active  interest  and  practical  intervention  in  the  proUem 
of  the  reconstruction  <rf  mral  proaperity  and  of  aocial  progroa 
in  all.  but  especially  io  the  older  sUtes  and  provinces,  is  the 
smcere  hope  of  the  author. 

P»™h  H.  Brtck. 


THE  ILLUMINATION  OF  JOSEPH  KEELER,  ESQ. 
ON,  TO  THE  LAND  t 
(A  9iOBT  OF  HiOH  Pbicis) 


CHAPTER  I 

Hamto»  Dats  on  Pbesqc'  Isle  Bat 

"Those  were,  indeed,  halcyon  days"  were  the  words  which 
especiaUy  arrested  the  attention  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq.,  whole- 
sale merchant,  Toronto,  i»  one  Sunday  evenmg  he  turned  the 
pages  of  an  old  chronicle  in  the  Papers  of  the  Ontario  Historical 
Society,  tellmg  of  the  days  of  early  settlement  on  the  easUm 
shores  of  Lake  Ontario. 

Mr.  Keeler  had  been  grea%  interested  in  the  story  of  Umg 
ago  in  that  part  of  Upper  Canada,  which  he  had  left  when  a  lad 
of  Hve  summers,  with  his  father,  who,  finding  trade  in  his 
general  store  going  yearly  from  bad  to  worse  through  the  changes 
incident  to  the  commg  of  railways,  had  in  the  late  fifties  gone 
to  Toronto  as  the  metropolitan  centre.  The  latter  with  a  fair 
capital  had  estabUshed  there  a  general  and.  subsequently,  a 
wholesale  grocery  business,  and  gradually  had  come  to  be 
looked  upon  as  one  of  the  leading  merchants  of  that  city.  The 
busmess  had  in  the  natural  course  of  events  been  continued  by 
the  son,  Joseph,  whom  we  find  a  leading  merchant  and  import 
tant  member  of  several  large  financial  corporations. 

As  Joseph  Keeler  read  on  in  these  historical  papers,  he  had 
become  yet  more  interested  in  the  list  of  names  occurring  in  an 
oW  parish  register  of  the  District  and  most  so  when  he  found 
the  following; 

XlWCASTLB  DDIRICT,  U.  C. 

Mm;  SI,  1804,  B>ptinsd  this  da;, 
"tamsph  Keeler,  aon  of  Joseph  Keder  and  Maiy  Peten  Keeler." 

The  article,  proceeding,  had  gone  on  with  a  popular  account 
of  the  other  settlers  on  Presqu'Isle  Bay  in  Northumberland 
County,  among  whom  were  Peters,  Simpsons.  Rogers,  Wards, 
Bumhams,  Gibsons  and  others,  and  told  of  how  in  1803  a  sur- 
vey of  the  now  village  of  Brighton  had  been  made,  and  of  how 
lots  had  been  taken  up  by  a  number  of  these  people,  the  Gov- 
ernment intending  to  make  it  the  town  of  Newcastle  and  county 
I 


«  The  Ittumituium  qf  Jowph  KeeUr,  Eiq. 

««t<rftheDiat«ct.  He  ri«,  found  related  maoy  stirring  „  well 
«  patbeUe  mcrienu  of  the  early  day.  on  fteiayZd  a^" 
«ad.  d»«.ve.ed  him«lf  becoming  a  link  with  m,Tm  pjT 
bu  „«^ly  separated  from  it  by  hi,  .unomulinr  "he 
house  had  grown  sJent,  his  wife  and  daughters  havinf  „U,S 
the  fnends  they  had  been  entertaining  hid  gone  Tnd  ^elwo 
o^der  son,  of  the  family  had  not  yet  come  T  There.^^t™ 
l'J)^K^^f-'"'°''*°*"^'<"»'-««"'dP«ent,.  ^ZZ 
E^lf"}t^  V"  ""^'  *"  »*•«  '•""«'  »'  Boston  B^y'C 
oiSv  ™      .  ^f  •  '"^  ^'^  ^  Mas^chusetts;  but.  finZ 

become  an  active  officer  in  the  militia  during  the  American 
^itZ  •'"  *??"  '•«'  •»"''«'  westw^and  af "r  dS° 

Murray    and    Cramahe    Township,,    named   after   the  first 

such  seed  gram  and  implement,  a,  the  Government  agreed  to 
meat.    The  chromcles  told.  too.  of  their  hardships  for  the  first 

of  t^e^  h!™  T'  ""•*  ™*f «  '"  "'^  fi"*  ''heat  cmps;  and 
of  the.r  dependence  meanwhUe  on  the  abomiding  fish  o   the 

^dTam^         '"•'''■' ^"^ '"''■''' ''"'"'''-■'"'"■''^-*^ 
J^^K  T'^^  ™°t?'te'l  with  the  present  surrounding,  of 

cl^t     -Zt        '"^!'  ''":"7  ""'"^"*  byawealthycitymeT. 
»X     ^      T  '"''*'^  *h*  ^"°^  "W  "'<>"'«  of  the  race 

two  dau^ter,  proudly  lending  their  elegant  support  to  the 
felt  a  seme  of  unreality  in  his  environment  anu.  yet  more  m 

zx^r*^  r.T  •"  "'"•=''  '^  g-'t-graiST;" 

the  chromcler  and  of  whom  hi,  father  h«i  told  him,  but  who 

tte  oM  ^  ^r°  ''"*  "'  ''"""^**  "'*'"'"y-    He  ^ee^ed  to  J« 
the  old  lady  „ttmg  m  her  ,ilk  dress  and  h«e  cap.  rehearsh^ 


Balcyon  Dayt  on  Praqu'  IiU  Bay  S 

the  «toiy  to  his  father's  cousin,  her  favourite  granddaughter, 
of  the  dangers  from  the  Yanlcee  rebels  and  from  the  Indians; 
of  the  fears  of  invasion  and  the  loss  of  her  father's  small  capital; 
of  the  journeying  as  a  young  girl  up  the  rapids  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence, the  tugging  at  the  ropes  by  the  line-men  on  the  shore, 
the  poUng  of  the  boats,  and  the  struggling  against  the  rocks 
and  the  currents  in  the  river.  Then,  too,  she  told  of  the  night 
camps  at  the  small  bindings  along  the  upper  river  reaches,  the 
passing  of  the  Thousand  Islands,  and  at  last  their  stay  at  Cat- 
araqui,  where  were  the  Land  Office  and  the  Depot  for  govern- 
ment supplies.  Their  final  trip  up  the  beautiful  Bay  of  Quints, 
the  crossing  of  the  Carrying  Place  to  Wellers'  Bay  and  the 
final  location  on  their  allotment  beyond  the  Bay  and  Presqu'- 
Isle  Point,  were  all  depicted  in  glowing,  if  homely,  language. 
As  she  told  of  those  early  years,  when  the  house  was  at  times 
without  flour  and  of  the  occasion  when  Captain  Keeler  had 
gone  with  several  othe-  to  the  mill  at  Napanee,  with  their 
small  grist  of  wheat,  and  were  delayed  by  stormy  weather  and 
a  breakdown  at  the  mill,  and  of  how  during  the  weary  waiting, 
an  Indian  had  one  day  paddled  his  canoe  to  the  shore  and  ask«l 
for  bread,  the  grandmother's  eyes  had  filled  at  the  recollection 
of  how,  when  she  had  bu-st  into  tears,  telling  by  signs  as  best 
she  could  of  how  she  had  no  food,  and  her  children  were  starv- 
ing, the  Indian  had  turned  and  said,  "You  very  good  squaw," ' 
and  going  to  his  canoe,  tossed  a  Urge  sahnon  onto  the  sandy 
shore  and  then  paddled  away. 

Then  came  tales  of  brightening  days,  when  there  were  hrger 
clearings,  and  the  virgin  soil  gave  abundant  crops;  when,  as  her 
boys  were  growing  up,  the  waters  of  the  kdce  and  the  rice 
marshes  of  the  Bay  gave  to  their  spears  and  guns  abundant 
fish  and  game.  TTie  salmon  filled  the  creeks  in  spawning  time, 
and  the  waters  of  the  Bay  swarmed  with  trout  and  whitefish, 
maskinonge  and  pickerel;  the  black  duck,  the  mallard,  and  teal 
darkened  the  waters  at  early  morning,  and  in  springtmie  the  sun 
was  shaded  and  the  trees  even  broken  down  by  the  flocks  of 
purple-breasted  wild  pigeons.  The  autumn  brought  in  the 
hunting  season;  the  deer,  which  sometimes  had  become  a  nui- 
sance coming  into  the  wheat-fields,  now  supplied  the  winter 
larder  with  many  a  haunch  of  venison.    The  chronicles  retold. 


ill 


ill 


*  Tk,  lUumituOion  qf  JoKph  Keehr.  E,q. 

M^t.  Which  .tnuided  on  P««,u'U,  Pobt  in  the  .utunm  of !«« 

««.  approached  the  «=hoone,  and  «tit  onfi"  'rd*^"^ 
1^"^"  '"■"  ""•  '••'"^''  »^"'-  ""'--K  .wayTlt: 

But  the  weirdest  of  all  her  ■tones  wu  ffc.t  „»  .1.    i 
ft-,u-I,le  Point  of  the  -hooner  ™;:^^:^th Ton*^ 

:an"':r:tt^„^i^'ri  ^'^-^t.rf'.^^^r^at^ 

iSt«fte  John  T-  """""  '^"''"'-  ^^°«"  McDon^fu^  . 
•avocate,  John  Stegman,  surveyor,  Mr  Georw  fj„»^    i-jr 

mU,p,eter,WRuggle,.EsJjohnkr:ott.br;irt^ 
pruoner.  and  Captain  P„ton  and  five  of  .  cieT  Th^  Thl 
hjd  started  out  f  „„  To«.„to  on  Sund.;  erninTSctCT 
with  a  brisk  northwest  wind-  had  call«)  in  tfc      "=".■*'  '• 
O^wa  to  take  on  witnes«»  ^^t^ttvZ  ht  w^'Zn:: 

tarn  Peters  and  others  fearing  for  her  hurried  away  to  the  Poio? 

Zt^  ^'^'7  ^-"'"'I'-SPeedy-topoXbu^rhrrs! 
^pewed  in  the  darkness  during  the  height  of  the  storm 

^yTtirS'  ""1  "*"  i.' '""  "  '"^  °'  the  schler^but ta 
The  stoiy.  tragic  as  it  was.  ,.a,  .  natural  one  and  would 


Bakym  Doyt  on  Pntqu'  Irit  Bay  s 

have  K  ranwined,  except  for  iti  myiterioui  lequel.  A  short 
tunebefore  the  tngedy,  it  h«l  happened  that  Cptain  SeUack 
of  Pr»qu'  ble  had  been  up  to  Niagara  with  a  load  of  goods 
from  Kingston  and  on  his  return  on  a  sweet  summer  day  the 
wmd  was  luUed  to  a  cahn,  the  sailors  lounging  about  on  deck, 
when  one  suddenly  saw  something  dark  and  strange  beneath  the 
smooth  glistening  Uke  surface.  The  captain  was  appri«d, 
and,  takmg  the  ship's  yawl  of  the  "Lady  Murray,"  went  back 
with  the  men  and  located  a  large  rock  just  beneath  the  water 
Next  day  he,  with  Captain  Paxton  of  the  Government  schooner 
"Speedy,"  took  boats  and,  by  the  points  taken  before,  located 
the  sunken  rock,  »»rce  three  feet  beneath  the  surface,  at  some 
four  miles  out  from  shore.  The  rock  was  some  forty  feet  square 
and  strangely  had  on  every  side  some  fifty  fathoms  of  water 
Captain  Paxton  caiefuUy  charted  iu  location  and  promised 
to  report  it  to  the  Department  at  Niagara  to  have  it  placed 
on  the  Lake  Chart. 

After  the  "Speedy"  had  disappeared  and  the  storm  subsided 
Captain  SeUack  and  the  settlers  of  Presqu'Isle  went  out  in 
boats  to  make  search  and  grapple  about  the  sunken  rock,  seek- 
ing for  some  evidence  of  the  lost  schooner.  They  searched  the 
first  day,  but  in  vain,  for  evidence  of  either  schooner  or  rock- 
with  more  men  and  boats,  they  went  next  day  and  a  third' 
but  still  no  rock  could  be  found,  nor  has  anything  further  ever 
been  heard  regarding  the  sunken  reef.  The  stoiy  of  the  phan- 
tom  rock  could  not  be  dissociated  from  the  loss  of  the  "  Speedy  " 
and  became  the  basis  of  an  agitation  for  moving  the  District 
town  and  Court  House  to  Amherst,  now  Cobourg.  So  the  alert- 
ness of  old  Captain  SeUack  and  his  men  in  searching  out  the 
hidden  danger  became  the  unlucky  occasion  of  the  village  los- 
mg,  what  in  those  days  was  of  so  great  importance,  the  County 
Seat. 

But  the  story  of  brighter  days  grew,  as  Mrs.  Keeler  saw  her 
sons  young  men,  going  forth  as  their  father  had  before  them, 
taking  up  new  lands  and  becoming  prominent  in  the  community. 
Settlers  arrived  in  plenty,  and  every  settlement  on  the  shore 
became  a  lake  port.  The  young  men  went  sailing  on  the  lakes, 
their  only  highway,  and  the  clearing  of  the  forest,  cutting  ships' 
masts  and  square  timber  for  export,  and  bmlding  sawmills  for 


I! 


•  n»  lUuminatum  qf  JoMph  KfUr,  Eiq. 

lumber  for  local  uh.  Jl  beoune  «  put  of  thow  biuy  diflr,  tUt 
flUed  the  Uter  yean  of  Grandmother  Keeler.  Neither  did  the 
rV  !^^  I«y»Ii»t  miM  telling  the  evenU  of  1837,  when  old 
Coloiiel  Willianu  and  Captain  Keeler  took  boat  with  their 
militia  company  to  defend  Toronto  againit  the  rabela 

A.  Mr.  Keeler  read  the  cloung  woidi  of  the  touching  chroni- 
cte,  ThoK  were  halcyon  days."  he  wa>  diaturbed  in  hii  vi.ion 
of  that  part  by  the  aound  of  his  sons'  latchkey  in  the  h»!l  door 
and  their  sUent  entrance,  hoping  perhaps  the  "governor"  was 
asleep.  Finding  him  awake,  however,  they  said  good-night, 
not,  perh^H,  without  some  uncomforUble  feeling  that  it  was 
hardly  fair  that  they  should  not  give  the  home  their  occasional 
presence  on  a  Sunday  evening.  Air.  Keeler  was  too  accustomed 
to  the  family  routine  to  have  noticed  at  any  ordinary  time  this 
occurrence;  but  the  reading  of  these  annals  of  the  past,  in  which 
ius  family  had  played  so  pronounced  a  part,  had  aroused  new 
thoughts,  which  made  the  distance  between  himself  and  the 
common  interests  of  the  family  seem  to  have  grown  to  a  wide 
guB,  and  almort  with  a  cry  of  longing  he  repeated  the  words. 
Those  were  indeed  halcyon  days!" 


CHAPTER  n 
High  ANcmBT  or  tbk  yiaa.»!B  Faiolt 

The  Keekr  family  itood  hi^  in  the  genenl  legsrd  of  their 
community,  for  the  merchant  wa«  succearful  in  his  bunnew 
and  his  wife  in  her  social  drele.  The  latter  as  the  wife  of  a 
piomment  wholesale  merchant  of  old  standing  in  Toronto,  but 
more  especially  as  the  granddaughter  of  an  early  missionary 
and  Anglican  clergyman  of  the  Hamilton  District,  demanded 
and  with  ito  usual  good  'lumour  society  in  some  measure 
yielded  her  that  place,  if  not  that  consideration  which  she 
deemed  due  to  heneU .  Most  properly  she  was  a  member  of 
the  "Daughters  of  the  Empire  Club"  and,  indeed,  had  been 
for  two  terms  a  vice-president  of  the  local  branch— for  had  she 
not  had  pointed  out  to  her  by  some  friend  of  historical  research 
tendencies  that  the  following  was  to  be  found  in  the  old  register 
of  the  parish  church  where  once  her  grandfather  had  officiated? 

'TuMd.y,  P*.  e.  ISS8.  Ilia  wu  •  dsr  of  Public  TliMikiglyiii.  by 
pnehiutioa  irom  Sir  Piud.  Bond  He«l,  the  Litolraut  Govanor.  (or 
victory  obuiatd  omt  the  rebeb  m  both  Flovhioee  ud  lor  their  geneimi 
maptmon," 

(Signed  T.  M.) 
She  had  not,  indeed,  actually  known  her  grandfather,  but 
vray  naturally  believed  he  was  honored  in  having  so  high- 
spirited  a  granddaughter,  who  was  so  well  able  to  replenish 
with  luscious  fruit  the  already  productive  family  tree.  She 
might,  indeed,  have  had  ill-natured  remarks  borne  to  her,  as 
that  people  said  she  was  showy,  superficial  and  even  mercurial, 
whatever  that  might  indicate;  but  such  remarks  were  simply 
ignored,  or  endured  with  equanimity,  she  always  knowing  that 
they  came  from  persons  of  no  fandly  importance,  who  really 
had  no  ancestors! 

It  was  not  unnatural,  therefore,  that  her  family,  nurtured  in 
thdr  comfortable  home,  surrounded  with  the  generous  luxury, 
which  a  merchant  of  their  father's  standing  so  easily  made 
'  1 


•  Tkt  lUumituHoH  of  Jimpk  Kihr,  Ef. 

po^  •hoold  be  funjr  codkIou.  at  thrt  neU  npoiocH^. 
which  th«y  Jad  b««B  Uugbt  to  believ.  WM  thein.    IIm  two 
young  bdw.  M  the  hoiue.  after  periupe  lUihthr  ineguW 
•chool  coune.  in  .  "Young  L«liee'  Semiauy,"  «hei«  «, 
tock  U  Kholutic  lucceM  wu  due  nlely  to  the  poor  qunUty  at 
thii  OT  that  pvticulu  tcMhei^-not  to  the  kck  of  applintiaa 
or  cpMitjr  m  the  pupiHud  gmdusted  in  turn  with  honoun 
ud  ■  certifiato  in  deportment,  the  elder  winning  •  priie  in 
•rt  and  the  younger  in  muiic.    As  the  Mminuy  w«  txdutm 
and  moet  wiect.  meamred  by  the  high  feei  and  the  unind 
lt»at  deKent  of  the  lady  principal.  Madame  Keeler  waa  fully 
•atufied  with  the  raulta.  at  a  whole.    Thereafter  two  yean' 
travel    abroad"  in  Europe  with  their  mother,  a  few  month*' 
rert  m  Laiuanne  for  French  and  language!  uid  ae  many  mom 
in  Mimich  for  muiic  and  art  had,  with  general  travel,  completed 
the  education  of  the  two  young  ladiee,  who  on  their  ntum 
home  m  the  early  autumn,  were  duly  announced  in  the  ndety 
columns  ammgst  the  season's  notabilities,  the  elder  especially 
asa  iilniUmte,  having  already  in  London  been  presented  at  a 
Drawing  Boom.    Several  seasons  had  passed  since  then  and 
the^er.  Miss  Maud,  was  stiU  unattsched-though  holding 
»hi*,  even  exchisive  place  in  her  circle,  being  best  known 
P«ta}«  for  a  someiriiat  haughty  rcaerve  and  a  degree  of  cw- 
scious  superiority--no  eligible  port.- having  yet  had  the  courage 
to  take  a  plunge  into  so  crystalline  a  stream,  whose  temperature 
was  feared  as  being  as  chilling  as  its  source.    The   younger 
dau^Ur,  Fanny,  bore  a  family  name,  and  whether  in  speech 
or  manner  expressed  oveiy  shade  of  that  vivacity  and  light. 
heartedness,  which  had.  and  even  yet,  marked  her  mother.    A 
general  favourite,  it  waa  her  friends  who  eqiedally  brightened 
the  social  circle  of  the  young  folks  who  frequented  the  house, 
and  who  with  their  music  and  dandnj  had  not  been  slow  to 
emulate  the  paces  of  their  elden  in  the  fashionable  bridgn, 
iriiich  made  life  in  the  Mosm  a  daily  roun^.  of  excitement,  even 
if  rather  enervating,  to  the  vivacious  Mm.  Keeler,  who  felt 
however,  that  "duty  must  be  donel" 

It  seems  necessary  in  attempting  this  family  ■  ventory  to 
add  a  word  or  two  about  the  sons  of  the  family,  John  and  Tom. 
now  young  men.  and  the  youngest.  Ernest,  a  lad  just  leaving 


Bi§kAntulrtqfthKMbrramat  f 

Vvpf  CaBKU  CoOcfe.  Jolu,  wo  and  heir,  had  nOj  beta 
nt  ^art  by  the  pnud  moUwr  (or  a  diitinguuhed  caiCCT,  had 
graduated  from  Upper  Canada  CoUeie  where  he  had  ahowii  Ua 
ability,  paoed  throufh  the  univerrity,  leeidiiv  in  hii  two 
final  year*  in  hie  Fnrt  houie.  gnduatine  '  poUtieai  econ- 
omy and  hiHory  with  an  averafe  standi.  {.  Lo|ica%  he 
went  into  law,  and  had  been  now  (or  lereral  yean  a  junior  in 
a  large  legal  finn.  At  eveiy  itep,  lUe  had  been  made  eaey  (or 
him.  No  queitione  cl  penonal  ecooomici  or  ol  monU  had 
ever  given  him  aerioiu  thought  or  trouble,  and  now,  immened 
in  club  Itfe  and  iu  dutie*.  he  had  dri(ted  along  at  a  young  man 
around  town,  generally  ipoken  o(  ai  clever,  it  only  he  would 
^iply  hinueU  and  not  devote  to  much  time  to  the  lomewhat 
v*iM  iniide  o(  clubdom.  His  brother,  Tom,  o(  the  more  even, 
phlegmatic  type  o(  his  (ather,  had  logically  gone  (rom  Upper 
Canada  CoUege  into  the  warehouse  to  be  initiated  into  the  busi- 
nen  at  which  his  (ather  was  pit^riy  proud.  Tom  had  not, 
petfa^M,  been  too  reguhr  as  to  hours  at  the  waiehouae;  but  as 
he  had  to  uphold  the  honours  o(  the  Argonauts  in  their  ei^t- 
oaied  crew,  and  to  attend  assiduously  all  yacht  club  races,  such 
inegularities  were  pardonable  —  even  necessaiy.  Like  his 
brother,  Tom  Keeler  had  moved  naturally  and  easily  into  club 
Mo  and  was  generally  liked  by  everyone  as  a  splendid  young 
(eUow  of  fine  physique;  but  none  accused  him  o(  being  as  yet 
seriously  solicitous  about  the  firm's  wettare,  or  a  shining  star  in 
the  business  firmament  o(  Front  Street.  This,  however,  every- 
one said  would  all  come  in  good  time  when  his  (ather  loosened 
his  hold  on  the  reins.  "Tom  was  all  ri^tl"  Such  then  was 
the  Keeler  (amily  as  it  appeared  to  the  public. 


It 


CHAPTER  ni 

HisTOBT  OF  Early  Siitilement  at  the  Cahhtinq  Puci 

The  week  had  passed  rapidly  as  usual  for  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq 
Monday  morning  had  brought  its  usual  duties  and  the  irregular 
appearance  of  the  family  at  the  breakfast  table  did  not  excite 
«By  comment,  as  it  had  become  habitual,  and  in  no  way  affected 
Mr.  Keeler's  daily  routine.  It  was  not  without  some  mis- 
pvmgs,  however,  as  to  the  quality  of  his  eldest  son's  habit., 
that  Mr.  Keeler  had  noticed  his  usuaUy  late  hours  at  night  and 
hu  non-appearance  at  the  family  breakfast  table,  with  now  and 
then  later  m  the  day  displays  of  irritabiUty,  which  could  not 
certamly  be  due  to  the  exhausting  nature  of  his  legal  duties. 

But,  once  in  his  office,  the  heavy  English  mail  drove  all 
other  matters  from  Mr.  Keeler's  thoughts.  The  short  midday 
lunch  at  his  club,  a  meeting  of  his  bank  directors  at  «.S0  and  a 
Uter  one  of  the  Trust  Company  at  4.S0  had  fiUed  Us  day,  and 
at  5.S0  he  rolled  home  in  his  auto,  the  type  of  the  successful 
city  man.  A  heavy  course  dinner  at  which  the  family,  with  a 
fnend  or  two,  were  present,  as  on  fuU  dress  parade,  completed 
the  day  s  duties  after  which  he  passed  the  evening  in  his  study, 
glancmg  through  the  evening  papers  over  a  comforUble  cigar 
and  the  last  Engiuh  Remm,  thereafter  retiring  only  to  repeat 
a  similar  daily  round  throughout  the  week. 

Sunday  evening  had  come  again,  and  Joseph  Keeler  found 
himseU  as  usual  in  his  study,  and  taking  up  ahnost  mechanically 
the  historical  volume  laid  down  a  week  before,  he  recaUed 
suddenly  the  story  of  the  old  grandmother  and  the  words. 
Those  were  indeed  halcyon  days."  He  found  the  passage 
agam  and  reading  on  found  stiU  more  interesting  recitals  of  the 
old  days  down  in  the  Lake  Shore  Settlement. 

The  whole  territory  at  the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Quint«  was 
redolent  of  the  stirring  scenes  of  Indian  warfare  from  Cham- 
plain  s  time  onward  to  the  days  of  the  Jesuit  missions,  where 
the  very  site  ...  the  old  mission  of  WeUers'  Bay  (the  four- 
U 


fii^ 


u 


Tht  lUuminaHon  of  Jouph  KeeUr,  E,q. 


i 

m 


m 


f^rll.  .?*^  ^ullf^  *"•"''  '*  »»'<'  Bluff  «:««s  the  ^ 
R^mth«.  the  S,dp.tian  mi»ion»e,  h«l  pushed  westwari^ 
tiie  Seneca  vilUge  up  the  shore  to  Tenagou,  now  hi,  hom. 
Toronto  and  north  by  the  Trent.  Rice  LZLXitn^r 
to  a.e  huntmg  ground,  of  the  now  vaniAed  HuronT",^; 
MatohedadiBay.  To  the  Car,ying  PU«.  too.  ca^  £.1S^e 
on  h«  fim  memoreble  journey,  seeking  an  oute  w«tw«d 
to  the  oce«.,  and  there  strangely,  too,  elected  i^^^ 
Ldce  Ene.  u«te«i  of  the  Aort  northerly  route.  certli^ty^'Z 
.^o^  ^tT;""'  *^P  *°  MichiUnuJdnao.  fearing.  wT^ 
™ppo».  «.e  Jesuit,  might  <•.»„«  him  along  the  Ltol^ 
route.  There  he  camped  at  Kent«.  the  old  Indian  villaBe3 
nuM.on,  and  lent  lustre  to  it,  tr«lition,  by  hi,  tol^^p^ 

fKTw),,^  *i^!,"     "'"^"'  *^*"  8™'''"^  8»ti'««d  «  halo 

way  eastward;  of  how  a  mirvey  was  made  in  1794  for  a  canal 
U™.*  Murray  township;  of  how  it  was  stated  that  frem  ^ 
^  •^T^.'™'^  '"*'"'*'  "f  Parliament  for  the  NewcMtk 
Distnct  had  been  elected  on  the  promise  of  getZt  t^^ 
bmlt.  and  when  finally  he  re«l  that  it  was  a  fo^KteS 
lather-,  courin,  the  Hon.  Joseph  Keeler.  the  b^  oTttTib^ 
f«ndy  mune.  that  of  the  captain,  the  first  imnSZ^  ^d  «tte 
M  a.e  ajy,  and  now  hi,  own  name,  the  wholeV^ser,^mri 
to  have  .hsappeared  into  that  glamoured  time,  Ld  he  S 
toh.  hvmg  over  again  the  Uves  of  all  tho«  .;to«  i^  t^^M 
d«maoftheCarrymgPl«=e.    It  presented  the  painted  redn.«^ 
once  on  the  warpath  now  a  kindly  neighbor;  haK  aZZJ 
half  dependant  of  the  early  MtUen;  then  Uie  pati^nt^^W 
«wa.^g  the  return  of  their  heroic  Uand, ^ow  .:^,^t™ 

t^wmg  of  these  lusty  setUement,  with  their  alarm,.  irtiviti« 
ami  struggles;  pictured  the  war  of  defence,  and  btor  o  ^^^ 

^^z^^:^'c  "^  "^^  ■".""  i-i«ranl":?r;^ 

Dack  Mttlements.  the  mcreasmg  vesiwU  and  traffic  on  the  lakes. 


Early  Setthmeni  at  the  Carrying  Plant  18 

the  buading  of  the  canal,  the  coming  of  the  nulway,  and  aU 
the  dmnge.  that  it  brought  with  it.  But  throu^out  all  there 
remained  one  fixed  idea  of  how  clow  to  each  other  in  their 
hardships,  with  their  mutual  self-help  and  common  sympathies, 
tte  people  m  those  early  days  had  been;  how  near  to  primeval 
Nature,  with  her  pine  woods  and  grassy  marshes  fiUed  with 
^e  and  fish,  and  how  intimate,  too,  with  the  Almighty  Creator 
of  those  scenes  of  pristine  beauty,  who,  nevertheless,  seemed  to 
dommate  aU  with  some  infinite  and  unseen  force,  in  which  as 
in  the  loss  of  the  "Speedy"  tragic  Destiny  mocked  the  puny 
efforts  of  men. 

Mr-ig  as  in  a  dream,  Mr.  £eeler  was  aroused,  as  usual,  by 
the  euJy  of  his  sons. 


i!  'I 
M 


CHAPTER  IV 

Joseph  Keeler  Visits  the  Home  of  His  Ancestobs 

Joseph  Keeler  was  essentially  city-bred  and,  naturally  enough, 
though  having  heard  of  his  father's  people,  had  taken  no  par- 
ticular interest  in  relatives,  the  nearest  of  whom  were  cousins 
and  countiy-bred.    But  now  he  had  become  charmed  by  the 
recitals  of  that  kindly  past  of  which  he  had  been  reading,  and 
began  to  feel  that  in  this  life  history  of  a  part  of  his  native 
Province  he  had  some  personal  interest.    This  was  still  more 
increased  by  the  discovery  that  it  was  his  father's  cousin,  the 
Hon.  Joseph  Keeler,  who  had  taken  such  an  important  part 
in  the  development  of  his  home  distrirt.    Perhaps,  too,  it  may 
unconsciously  have  come  to  his  mind  that  it  might  not  be 
unprofiuble  even  from  a  social  standpomt  to  cultivate  hia 
ancestral   relationships,  as   Barnes  Newcombe  did   the  old 
Colonel.    So  it  came  about  that  on  the  next  hoUday,  which  was 
the  Queen's  birthday,  he  took  his  boy,  Ernest,  and,  telling  the 
family  he  was  going  to  Brighton  for  the  day,  went  down  on  a 
Saturday  evening  train  to  spend  the  two  holidays.    Often  as 
he  had  passed  to  Montreal  on  business,  Joseph  Keeler  had  never 
stopped  off  at  the  Bay;  so  when  on  the  Sunday  morning  they 
strolled  out  along  the  lake  beach,  pushing  their  steps  toward 
Presqu'Isle  Point,  an  emotion  of  deUght  not  unmixed  with 
shame  came  over  the  man  (who  till  now  had  needed  no  an- 
cestors),  as  he  drank  in  the  beauty  of  the  scene  and  recalled  the 
memory  of  the  old  forgotten  yef.«,  when  "They  were  indeed 
halcyon  days."    He  could  imagine  the  Bay  cover<Kl  with  wild 
fowl;  the  Unes  of  seines,  where  salmon,  white  fish,  pike  and 
pickerel  weighed  down  the  nets,  supplying  abundance  for  the 
settlers,  who  had  as  yet  few  cattle  for  food. 

He  pictured  the  place  where  old  Grandfather  Gibson  was 
building  his  schooner  when  bumcH  by  the  Yankee  pirate  in 
181«,  and,  telling  these  old  Ules  t    his  boy,  recalled  the  way- 
laying of  the  mail-carrier,  travelling  rapidly  by  land-post  from 
U 


18 


Tht  lUuvtination  ^Joupk  Kuh,,  £«, 


!l;f 


bMin  of  the  B«r,  wUle  thl  ^  '^!.'^"l""«  *''•  8«'*«»^ 
of  the  piiA-whS;  btolm!  7^J  '"'*^  *^«  ™™»'  '««<«»« 
At  the  hotel  theoIdnZI?  ^•"  '.  ™"'»'''«  intoaction. 
inquired  of  m.  K^^uTZ  '  "^t  Tf'  ™  "«  ««*'*•'• 
when  he  »^eJtt.t  ft  wt  twT.f  V  '™'"''  '^*"-  ""• 

improved  on  his  loouacitrTnHfcT  .  .  "'■  ^""  Bomface 
fame  of  old  CptS S^d  ttf  M  ""^  ""=  t""'™"-* 
had  hean,  of  Jthe  g^tXtS:;"  trpt:*'"- "''•""  "■• 

J<»eph  Keeler  »S  his^e  Tt^U  t.  '^*'  ""'  '"»  ^"P»^ 
to  recaU  forgotten  ^fere^l"  by^'ll^erT^  """,  "'°'"* 
on  the  Bay;  while  the  «mnl.  7  *''*  *"'y  '™« 

fa,hionedhoLZ^:4';:Xe':?"f;''"'  """'  '"«^  ""- 
of  a  period  in  the  hi,tonr  omf.,  fT  '  !"  ^J*'*"*  memorial. 
Upper  Canada,  whfch  tm  nl^h  J^^Tv-""'  •'"^''"P"™*  of 
•Hetnming  to  tte  hlteUS^  ^  ^'"  *"  ••.""  "^  "  ^''»«»  book, 
and  learned  the  l«^tion  cf  ttf  ^"v^T**?"^  the  proprietor 
wa,  situated  weJ^^XS^^^^t «  ''°"'''*^=  •"-  '* 
replaced  that  which  had  beTb^  J^  n^'  '""'*°'  'armhouse 
rtiU  showed  the  Z^oHLT  ^'  «"""'''' '«"'«™'. 
behind  was  loct^e  11  ^^^  *'"'"  °°  *^«  '"ndy  knoU 
BonifacegossSn^  ,  i?   T^  ^'"^  «""»d  »tiU  the«. 

a.veness.zs-,t^L^rrrf::ihtr^""'''*^'''- 

than  to  those  days  when  his  f«t  W  u  T^  .  **  "^  accuracy 
house  in  the  coac^^™  ^  imt^t" '''^  "^"^l^t  °"  "**■ 
«.  destructive  of  the  s^  iT       ^!,«"^«  o*  the  raUway. 

•»,«,  ™.  .^„  „ ..  ,^  ^  ^  ^_  ___  _____^ 


Jomjih  Keeltr  ViriU  Ike  Home  0/  ku  Anctriori  17 

briar  rOK  and  honeyiuclde  to  teU  him  not  only  that  there, 

"Tile  rude  torrfatlien  cl  the  lumlet  lleep"; 
but  al«o.  what  to  him  waa  of  inten«  importance,  that  there 
lay  hu  forefathers.  The  strong  Mjlf-comphoent  man  shed 
•Uent  tears  at  what  seemed  a  life-long  neglect  and  a  permitted 
•acnlef^,  where  catUe  and  sheep  had  broken  through  the 
decayed  stone  wall  of  the  neglected  graveyard.  Speaking  very 
qmetly  to  his  son.  Mr.  Keeler  said:  "Ernest,  we  must  6nd  wme 
way  of  carmg  for  the  graves  of  these  dear  old  folks,  who  were 
your  ancestors  as  weU  as  mine."  The  lad  cried,  too,  wonde> 
mg  much  at  it  aU  for  though  he  had  read  of  the  glorious  deed, 
c*  sddiers  in  Enghsh  history,  and  had  been  eompeUed  to  learn 
the  datM  of  the  battles  of  Queenston  Heights  and  Lundy's 
Lane  and  Stony  Creek,  the  English  masters  at  Upper  Canada 
CoUege  were  almost  as  ignorant  of,  as  they  were  indifferent  to 
the  heroic  efforU  of  either  Brock  or  De  SaUbury,  who  had  held 
Canada  for  her  sons  and  the  Empire. 

In  the  afternoon  they  took  a  carriage  and  drove  around  the 
Bay  shore  road  to  near  the  Carrying  Place  and  along  the  tow- 
path  of  the  canal,  which  was  one  of  the  living  witnesses  to  the 
tocal  patriotism  and  endeavors  for  his  native  county  of  the 
Hon.  Joseph  Keeler,  who  haddived  and  died  in  it  and  who,  aa 
he  was  to  learn  later,  had  been  financiaUy  ground  between  the 
upper  and  ^e  nether  miU-stone  of  new  economic  condition, 
brou^t  in  by  the  nulways,  which  have  meant  commercial 
tragedies  m  Upper  Canada,  as  elsewhere,  which  have  wiped 
out  in  truth  thousands  of  family  names  in  the  older  border 
counties  of  early  settlement,  once  the  syn<mym  for  local 
progress,  commercial  integrity  and  social  success.  Of  such 
local  history,  the  sessional  papers  of  the  Legishiture,  and  even 
the  portraits  of  the  halls  of  ParUament  aU  teU  of  a  time  when  a 
(wigle  name  spoke  the  gloiy  of  a  whole  county,  whose  where- 
abouts was  known  best  from  the  fame  of  its  representative 


CHAPTER  V 


OmcuL  Report  to  Fault  on  Paternal  Genealoot 

When  Jowph  Keeler  returned  to  Toronto,  he  did  ao  b  changed, 
re-formed  man.  Hitherto  the  family  had  mortly  counted  on  iU 
deacent  from  the  country  rector,  who  had  held  the  thanlugiving 
»ervice  for  the  suppression  of  the  Rebellion,  through  instructions 
from  the  lieutenant-governor,  and  had  piously  and  with  fervour 
read  the  Litany — 

"Fnm  all  Mditlon,  privy  conqiinc;  and  RbcUioii,  Oood  Loid  dellnr  ui." 
If  not  in  so  many  words,  Mr.  Keeler  had  been  more  than  once 
made  to  feel  that  yet,  even  though  he  was  a  successful  wholesale 
merchant,  the  true  measure  of  the  social  family  success  had 
come  through  the  female  Ime  of  succession.  This  belief  was 
fully  impressed  upon  him,  especially  by  his  eldest  son  and  daugh- 
ter. The  former  was  distinctly  a  member  of  the  legal  profession, 
and  the  latter,  for  what  were  to  her  the  best  and  moat  logical 
reasons,  bore  herself  like  that  other  Maud  in  Tennyson: 

"But  a  cold  clMf<ut  face,  ai  I  found  her  when  her  carriane  paiaed 
Faultily  faultleia.  ic^y  legular.  aplendidly  nuD." 

She  had  been  for  a  term  or  two,  recording  secretary  to  the 
"Daughters  of  the  Empire,"  and  her  name,  more  than  once,  had 

been  seeu  appended  to  resolutions  and  addresses,  breathing 

even  redolent  of— loyalty  to  the  King,  to  the  Empire  and  to  the 
Over-Seas  Club. 

When  now  Mr.  Keeler  returned  from  the  Bay  and  Ernest 
burst  upon  th  dinner-table  with  a  highly  picturesque,  if 
slightly  exaggerated  and  inaccurate  account  of  what  they  had 
heard  and  seen  of  the  queer  old  place,  where  father's  ancestors 
were  buried,  jid  of  the  canal,  which  one  of  them  had  had  built, 
the  father  felt  a  distinct  sense  of  approaching,  if  not  of  having 
wholly  arrived  on,  the  social  plane,  where  his  very  superior 
family  had  in  these  later  years,  when  his  business  success  and 
financial  standing  in  the  community  made  it  possible,  found 


to  Tlu  /ihimtnatton  qf  Jo-pk  Kttit,  Eiq. 

thenuelvn  to  utunlly  ctUblithed  and  k  generally  received  and 
accepted.  Mn.  Kecler  now  at  once  turned  to  her  huiband  and 
enquired  if  what  the  lad  had  been  chattering  about  wai  correct! 
and  when  Mr.  Keeler  laid  "certainly  I"  ihe  then  wished  to  know 
if  he  had  diicovered  who  theie  people  were,  aad  whence  they 
bad  come.  Joseph  Keeler,  now  with  nme  pardonable  dignity 
and  perhaps  ollended  anceitral  family  pride,  laid  there  wai  the 
following,  which  he  had  written  on  an  envelope: 

"To  tk«  Monory  o(  Captlin  JoMph  Knier,  bom  17M  U  I'phai,  Eoiluid, 
•rriwd  In  BoMoa  177 J,  ud  Mttlgd  in  tlit  New  ChIIc  DiMrlct  17M,  •  piimxr 
of  »»  in  Onrcfo  >■>  1819,  and  held  till  Um  end  o(  the  war,  nferinf  much 
tor  Kinf  and  Countiy.    DM  1898." 

and 

"Mary  Peten,  hie  wife,  boin  in  1780.  who  coming  to  Canada  with  her 
father.  Captain  Petet^  bote  with  hemic  rounge  the  hanlihipe  of  ploDccr 
dajw  retalnini  throiiahoiit  her  lon|  Ufa  a  joyoui  ipiilt:  Who  driighled  her 
childnn  and  fiandchildien  with  talea  cl  early  danfen  and  adventuiea  layinf 
alwayi,  Thoae  wen  udeed  halcyon  daya.'    Died  18M." 

At  the  end  of  this  recital  of  the  inscription  on  the  old  head- 
stone, Mrs.  Keeler  with  an  injured  air  at  once  remarked: 

"Now,  Joseph,  it  is  really  too  bad  you  have  never  told  us  this 
before,  when  you  really  are  of  such  a  good  famfly." 

'Well,  my  dear,"  he  replied,  bUndly,  "how  could  I,  when  I 
did  not  know  myself?  And  besides,  my  dear,  you  have  always 
had  so  much  family  yourself,  there  has  not  really  been  room  for 
much  more.'* 

To  which  reply,  given  perhaps  with  some  intended  emphuis, 
his  elder  daughter  replied, 

"It  is  all  very  well,  papa,  to  make  fun  of  'family';  but  you  are 
just  as  proud  of  us  and  our  mother's  ancestors  as  we  are  our- 
selves." 

Mr.  Keeler  closed  the  matter,  when  he  said  very  quietly,  look- 
ing meaningly  toward  his  eldest  son, 

"It  is  veiy  desirable,  my  dear,  to  have  come  of  good  families; 
but  there  is  with  it  a  great  responsibility  laid  upon  us  all  of  living 
up  to  our  privileges,  and  of  doing  things  worthy  of  our  ancestry." 

Even  tl  mother  was  silent  and  the  subject  was  turned  to 
some  passing  trifle— a  rather  oppressive  silence  marking  the  rest 
of  the  dinner,  except  when  broken  by  Ernest's  rhapsodies  on  the 
apple  orchards  of  Brighton. 


CHAPTER  VI 

DuctnuoN  OM  Cau«u  or  Hioh  Pbicer,  with  Ruults 

It  hmd  not  poued  Jowph  Kecler's  acute  obwrvttion  unno- 
ticed, thiit  the  old  luwn  o(  Brighton  leemed  to  breathe  an  an- 
cient air;  that  the  age  of  the  hoiues,  the  appearance  of  the  stores, 
the  old  hostelry,  the  absence  of  proper  attention  to  the  streets, 
even  the  movements  of  tiie  people,  all  seemed  to  tell  of  a  life, 
which  had  once  been  vigorous,  energetic  and  hopeful,  but  which 
now  appeared  to  have  been  lived  and  was  old.  Similarly,  the 
farmsteadings  and  the  farms,  with  their  wealth  of  spring  verdure 
and  the  rare  beauty  of  the  scenery  of  the  hills  skirting  the  Bay, 
seemed  often  to  give  evidence  of  a  lack  of  agricultural  progress; 
while  large  fields  of  rough  pasture  land  and  wet,  undrained  areas, 
seemed  to  indicate  a  something  lacking  to  the  eyes  of  an  ener- 
getic city  man,  always  intent  upon  keeping  buildings  and  ware- 
houses as  up-to-date  as  possible.  Just  what  the  matter  was,  Mr. 
Keeler's  inexperience  of  rural  aSaurs  prevented  him  from  fully 
comprehending;  but  the  casual  notices  in  the  daily  papers  re- 
garding a  stationary  or  even  lessening  rural  population  came  to 
hia  mind;  while  the  possible  relationship  between  these  sti.te- 
ments  and  certam  unsatisfactory,  and,  indeed,  unpleasant 
conditions  during  a  number  of  years  past,  in  the  mcreasing  ex- 
pense of  doing  business  in  selling  goods  throughout  Ontario,  with 
lessening  sales  in  the  smaller  towns  and  less  profits,  came  to 
assume  an  importance,  which  was  to  result  m  directing  his 
thoughta  and  actions  a  long  way  aside  from  the  pathway  which, 
during  a  long  and  busy  lifetime,  he  had  followed  with  satisfac- 
tion. 

Just  at  the  moment  when  these  matters  were  fresh  in  his  mmd 
Mr.  Keeler  happened  to  be  dining  with  a  small  company  an^ongst 
whom  was  the  University  Professor  of  Social  EconomKs.  The 
table-talk  passed  from  the  general  high  cost  of  living  to  the  cause 
of  the  great  increase  in  the  cost  of  food  products.  The  usually 
ascribed  causes  were  discussed,  amongst  which  were  the  hi^ 
» 


tt  Tin  IttuminoHaH  qf  JoMrk  K—ttt,  Btq. 

imtak,  too  mmny  in  the  ra*l-«st«te  biuineu  too  muy  middk- 
mm  handling  lupplici,  tiw  high  out  of  tnuuportation  on  nil- 
wigri,  the  ihiftleMneu  of  the  farmer  in  not  producing  enough, 
with  the  boyi  leaving  the  farm,  the  wtate  tlirough  highly  paid 
and  wretchedly  trained  coolu  and  limilar  reaioni,  all  more  or 
leH  correct.  Joeeph  Keeler  liitencd  intently  and  with  hif  recent 
rural  obiervationa  in  mind  Hid  but  little. 

The  profcMor  in  turn  ipoke  with  academic  conviction,  while 
all  liitened  reverently,  inspired  with  awe,  u  hr  talked  of  chang- 
ing world  ponditions,  of  how  the  early  settlers  in  Canada  had 
mostly  been  «^  Ihe  peasant  class,  too  often  of  the  pauper  and  even 
criminal  rhuaea,  who  were  ignorant  and  content  merely  to  labour 
or  simply  to  exist.  He  recalled  how,  late  in  the  last  century, 
many  of  those  had  become  well  off;  had  grown  ambitious  for 
their  families,  sending  sons  to  college,  while  others  went  into 
towns  from  the  farm.  Though  a)l  this  did  seem  directly  asso- 
ciated wita  the  high  cost  of  living,  yet  in  the  great  world 
processes  of  evolution,  self-culture,  social  illumination,  and  the 
cultivation  of  the  amenities  and  graces  were  all  important ;  while 
the  many  conveniences  and  even  luxuries,  which  were  within  the 
reach  of  the  whole  people,  whether  in  city  or  country,  after  all 
more  than  compensated  for  what  at  timet  did  seetn  a  diliicult^' 
on  the  part  of  people  in  making  ends  meet.  In  fact,  the  time 
had  now  arrived  for  society  to  begin  to  employ  the  inferior  races; 
in  the  East,  the  Pole,  the  Finn  and  Galician;  in  the  West,  the 
Chinaman,  Jap  and  Hindoo.  Brain  must  ever  rule  over  brawn, 
and  if  only  John  Stuart  Mill's  policy  of  laiuafain  were  allowed 
to  operate  freely  and  leave  all  these  matters  to  be  privately  set- 
tled by  "competition"  such  temporary  di£  ilties  would,  in  the 
end,  right  themselves.  It  had  been  remarked  concerning  this 
professor  of  practical  affairs,  bom,  bred  and  educated  in  the 
Old  World,  that  he  busied  himself  with  bis  teaching  duties  very 
seriously  during  the  college  term,  only  to  hie  away  in  the  spring- 
time to  English  or  Alpine  fields  from  which  he  might  study  at 
long  range  the  agricultural,  industrial  and  social  conditions  of 
the  several  Provinces  of  Canada,  extending  from  ocean  to  ocean. 
But  apart  from  his  rather  irritating  ipae  dixit,  he  was  scholarly 
and  companionable,  and  was  capable  of  becoming  interested  in 
social  problems  when  directly  set  before  him. 


DumurioH  m  Catuu  vf  Hifk  Pritf  U 

Now  JoMph  Kceler  had  not  been  at  all  Htii8ed  with  the  pro- 
(ewor'i  ponderoiu  platitudei,  ud  wu  reioived  to  go  much  mora 
ckiwly  into  the  itudy  of  whtt  had  now  become  (or  him  an  ab- 
•orbing  queetion.  Inviting  the  profeuor  to  ipend  the  neit 
Saturday  evening  with  him,  Mr.  Keeler  bade  a  general  "Good- 
nifktl"  and  walked  home,  revolving  many  thingi  in  hi>  mind, 
like  Ulyuci  by  the  loud-reiounding  lea. 

With  the  nnt  Saturday  evening  came  the  profeuor  and.  Mt- 
tled  in  a  comfortable  armchair  in  Mr.  Keeler '•  itudy  with  a  pipe 
and  a  glan  of  lome  supporting  Sedek,  he  liitened  while  Mr. 
Keeler  let  before  him  certain  phaiei  of  the  problem  which  they 
had  been  diacuwing  as  they  bore  upon  commercial  aSain,  and 
told  then  of  the  terieii  of  incident!  that  had  taken  him  to  the  old 
town  on  Pmqu'Isle  Bay,  and  the  new  light  iii  which  the  whole 
problem  was  licginning  to  appear  to  himself,  as  he  read  from  the 
past  into  the  present  history  of  the  beginnings  of  settlement  and 
of  the  development  of  Upper  Canada.    He  said : 

"  You  know,  professor,  I  was  a  lad  of  only  five  years  when  my 
father  left  the  old  town  down  on  the  Bay,  where  he  had  been  for 
yean  with  his  father,  a  general  merchant,  supplying  the  incom- 
ing settlers  going  to  the  back  townships  with  all  kinds  of  goodi 
on  credit,  and  taking  in  return  their  potash,  timber,  grain  and 
farm  produce.  Uis  father  ijcfore  bini,  a  farmer,  hftcl  .i^cdually 
gone  into  business,  as,  having  been  the  son  of  one  of  the  earliest 
settlers,  he  had  grown  to  a  man  of  local  importance  and  was  con- 
sulted by  the  newcomers,  who  so  often  needed  some  temporaiy 
assistance,  and  could  only  pay  for  it  with  produce,  there  being 
but  little  money  in  those  times.  As  I  have  now  learned,  my 
father  was  but  one  of  a  series  of  merchants  in  those  old  lake 
ports  of  the  early  days,  which  extended  from  Cornwall  to  To- 
ronto. As  the  settlement  of  their  townships  was  only  possible 
through  these  ports,  so  up  from  each  at  eveiy  five  to  ten  miles 
were  government  roads,  and  the  local  squabbles  of  rival  ton-ns 
for  the  expenditure  of  public  funds  on  their  particular  roads  to 
the  back  country  were  even  more  strenuous  than  those  for  local 
railways  today. 

"In  most  of  these  larger  villages  or  towns  was  a  government 
land  agent;  but  especially  important  was  this  appointment  in 
the  district  or  county  towns,  where  were  the  registry  offices. 


44  The  lUumination  0/  Joseph  Keeler,  Eiq. 

Each  of  theie  towns,  as  the  immigration  increased,  became  the 
centre  of  a  business  activity  in  selling  to  the  immigrants  and  in 
shipping  out  lumber  Rnd  grain  equalling,  and  exceeding  even, 
that  of  the  growing  towns  of  our  new  Northwest  today,  since 
the  products  were  much  more  varied.  I  have,  indeed,  taken 
some  trouble  to  obtain  figures,  which  I  have  found  in  old  blue- 
books,  which  I  suppose  my  father  had  sent  him  by  his  cousm, 
the  Hon.  Joseph  Keeler,  of  Northumberhmd  County.  From 
these  I  learn  that  when  Lord  Durham's  report  was  acted  upon 
and  Mr.  Poulett  Thomson,  afterwards  Lord  Sydenham,  got  his 
District  Councils  Act  passed  in  1841  and  a  census  taken,  the 
population  of  Upper  Canada  was  450,000  and  the  actual  revenues 
were  but  $700,000. 

"Now  mark  what  followed.  By  1881  after  the  union  with 
Lower  Canada  as  a  legislative  union  had  existed  twenty  years, 
the  census  showed  in  1861  a  population  increase  in  Upper  Canada 
to  1,396,000,  and  a  revenue  of  $3,500,000.  But  what  further  is 
of  intense  interest  is  the  then  distribution  of  population.  The 
townships  of  Murray  and  Cramahe  in  the  Bay  district  were 
surveyed  about  1794,  and  other  lakeside  townships  westward  a 
little  later.  The  census  of  1841  gives  the  following  table,  which 
I  have  compared  with  1861  and  1911 :" 
Tammhipt  lau        t861        1911 

Murray 8061        361*        8765 

Cramahe SOIS        3841        2439 

Hamilton 4857        6315        8414 

Clarke fuu       8575        3S75 

Haldunand 2690        6165 

Hope sase        5888        SJ7S 

Town  of  Cobourg 4974        5074 

Town  of  Port  Hope 4162        5092 

Rear  Towmhipt 

Seymour. 847        8842        S3S1 

Percy "...       726        3515        2786 

Asphodel 551        2911        1861 

Cavan 2899        4901        2499 

Cartwright 365        2727        1584 


Ditcuttion  on  Causa  of  High  Prices  is 

Mr.  Keeler  continued: 

"1  confew  I  was  astoni.;  -a  r-oe^  t  had  carefuUy  examined 
ttese  three  »eU  of  figures.  To  think.  wU:.  i  total  population  in 
Ontario  in  1911  of  «,««S,i  :i,  aad  only  46f.000  in  1841,  that  the 
townships  along  the  lake  i  Im  e  had  at  thi  time,  in  almost  eveiy 
instance,  larger  populations  thiui  iu  IDII  though  aU  had  notably 
mcreased  in  1861,  was  something  I  never  dreamed  of.  But  the 
way  in  which  settlement  advanced  through  these  lake  ports 
l»fore  the  raUway  came  is  neatly  Ulustrated  by  the  figures  for 
the  rear  townships  in  1861  as  compared  with  1841.  All  had 
filled  to  overflowing,  and  yet  the  losses  in  these  townships  by 
1911  are  even  greater  than  in  those  along  the  lake  shore." 

To  the  professor,  these  figures  applied  in  detail  to  a  special 
district,  were  most  startling.  He,  of  course,  knew  of  the  depop- 
ulation of  Ireland  at  the  time  of  the  famine  of  1846,  but  he  knew 
also  that  such  was  due  to  poverty,  disease,  and  political  unrest 
He  was  acquainted,  too,  with  the  periods  of  unusual  emigration 
from  England  and  Scotland;  but  then  these  were  caused  by 
either  commercial  depression  or  bad  land  laws.  But  how  to 
explain  a  situation  in  a  province  like  Ontario,  which  had  no  old- 
time  problems  to  solve,  where  peace  and  plenty,  so  far  as  he 
knew,  had  existed  for  many  years,  and  where  agriculture  always 
seemed  prosperous  was  to  him  quite  impossible.  The  question 
had  been  much  too  small  an  affair  for  him,  whose  studies  in  eco- 
nomics had  been  based  almost  whoUy  upon  European  conditions- 
while,  as  regards  the  periodicaUy  acute  problems  in  the  United 
States,  such  were  looked  upon  as  a  part  of  European  commercial 
questions  and  as  abnormal,  owing  to  an  enormous  mass  of  unas- 
similated  people,  and  not  governed  by  the  operation  of  ordinary 
economic  laws. 

When,  however,  Mr.  Keeler  pointed  out  that  along  with  this 
steady  lessemng  of  the  rural  population,  there  was  an  equal  les- 
senmg  of  local  business,  measured  by  the  wholesale  dealings  of 
h«  firm  and  the  wholesale  trade  generaUy,  and  that  he  learned 
from  the  Ontario  Bureau  of  Industiy  Reports  of  the  decline  al- 
most yearly  during  the  past  ten  years  of  the  areas  in  crop  in  many 
old  counties  and  of  the  decrease  in  the  number  of  cattle  and 
sheep  and  of  less  acreage  in  wheat,  barley  and  oats  grown,  the 
professor  began  to  comprehend  that  perhaps  here  really  was  a 


26 


The  Ittuminatum  of  Joteph  Keeler,  Etq. 


problem  quite  within  the  range  of  his  work;  while  the  more  he 
dwelt  upon  it  the  len  certain  he  was  that  he  had  up  to  this  time 
been  doing  all  his  duty  to  the  University  of  the  Province,  which 
supplied  him  with  a  secured  position,  and  which  institution 
existed  and  was  supported  for  the  very  purpose  of  giving  scholars 
like  himself  opportunities  for  tracing  existing  sociological  and 
economic  conditions  to  their  first  causes,  and  perhaps  indicating 
wherein  mistakes  had  been  made  and  how  remedies  might  be 
applied. 

The  professor  at  length  rose  up  to  say.  Goodnight!  and 
thanked  Mr.  Keeler  again  for  the  quite  new  train  of  thought  and 
study  opened  up  and  promised  to  meet  him  soon  again. 


i|i   : 


CHAPTER  vn 


JoeEPB  Kbeueb,  Student  of  Eablt  Canadian  Hibtobt 

In  the  interval,  Joseph  Keeler  had  been  busy  on  his  now  all- 
engrossing  subject.  He  took  it  to  the  club  with  him  and  at  odd 
moments,  producing  his  volume  of  figures  and  statistics,  would 
discuss  the  tope  with  his  business  friends  at  Board  meetings 
and  elsewhere.  He  devoured  every  available  scrap  of  early 
history  and  especially  of  the  District  he  had  grown  to  love  and 
look  upon  as  his  own.  He  learned  from  the  old  newspaper 
files  in  the  central  library  and  from  various  blue  books  of  the 
manner  in  which  a  group  of  English,  Irish  or  Scotch  immigrants 
would  settle  a  whole  township  in  one  year  and  of  how  in  the  next 
township  a  quite  different  class  would  come  the  year  following. 
He  became  acquamted  too  from  standard  Canadian  histories 
with  the  organization  of  the  District  Councils  by  the  Bill  of 
Lord  Sydenham  in  1841,  under  which  the  wardens  were  nomi- 
nated by  the  Governor,  and  with  the  rapid  evolution  of  county 
self-goyemment  completed  by  the  Hon.  Robert  Baldwin's 
Municipal  Act  of  1840,  providing  for  complete  township  auton- 
omy. He  found  too  that  the  effects  of  the  long  struggle  for 
representative  institutions  had  developed  a  strength  and  sturdi- 
ness  of  thought  and  of  mdependent  action  m  the  people  of 
Upper  Canada,  increased  by  the  inrush  of  emigrants  from  Britain 
who  had  witnessed  the  same  fight  there,  resulting  in  the  Reform 
Bill  of  1838,  and  later  m  the  Repeal  of  the  Com  Laws  in  184S, 
all  which  had  resulted  in  the  merging  into  one  of  the  people  here 
to  a  degree  and  with  a  rapidity  never  before  surpassed. 

Digging  yet  deeper,  Mr.  Keeler  found  a  whole  volume  of 
correspondence  containing  minutes  of  the  Legislatures  of  both 
Canadas  and  of  several  Boards  of  Trade,  which  existed  even  in 
those  early  days,  urging  that  free  entry  he  given  to  Canadian 
wheat  into  Britain  and  at  the  same  tune  asking  that  American 
wheat  be  admitted  free  to  Canada  for  grindmg,  but  that  it 
should  be  taxed  in  England,  thereby  supplying  a  preference 


f 

m 


9S 


The  lUuminatum  of  Joseph  KeeUr,  Esq. 


necessary^  it  was  stated,  because  of  tlie  cheaper  freight  via  the 
Erie  Canal  which  ran  from  Oswego  to  the  Hudson.  As  bearing 
intimately  on  this  matter,  Mr.  Keeler  found  a  letter  to  Lord 
John  Russell  dated  21st  January,  1841,  from  Lord  Sydenham 
then  Governor  of  the  Canadas.    It  stated: 

"Upper  Canada  is,  as  you  are  aware,  entirely  dependent  upon 
the  sale  of  its  agricultural  produce  and  especially  of  wheat  for 
the  production  of  which  it  is  eminently  calculated.  Great 
excitement  prevaib  in  that  Province  at  the  present  time  with 
regard  to  this  subject.  The  abundant  harvest  both  here  and 
in  the  Western  States  has  greatiy  increased  the  quantity  for 
exportation;  but  the  prices  are  so  low  that  the  farmers  and 
laborers  are  unable  to  derive  the  advantage  they  expected.  The 
consequence  is  that  there  is  an  outcry  raised  for  what  is  termed 
agricultural  protection  in  the  shape  of  duties  upon  the  produce 
of  the  United  States  imported  into  Canada — a  scheme,  it  is 
hardly  necessary  to  observe,  whicti  would,  even  if  it  were  nat 
objectionable  in  principle,  be  utterly  useless  to  an  importing 
country  for  the  end  sought,  namely,  to  raise  the  price;  whilst 
it  would  diminish  if  it  did  not  destroy  a  great  brancli  of  trade, 
the  grinding  of  United  States  com  admitted  into  the  Ports  of 
the  Jlother  Country."* 

But  there  were  many  side-lights  which  illumined  for  Mr. 
Keeler  the  actual  situation  as  it  existed  in  those  days,  while  one 
dealing  with  matters  in  his  own  lakeshore  district  was  of  intense 
interest  to  him. 

Before  a  committee  of  the  Legislature  in  1842  the  pros  and 
eoru  of  the  conflicting  claims  for  the  expenditure  of  a  grant  of 
£1,500  on  a  settlement  road  leading  from  the  lake  to  the  head  of 
Rice  lake  in  the  rear  townships  were  discussed,  the  competing 
towns  being  Cobourg  and  Port  Hope.  The  evidence  went  on, 
John  Gilchrist,  member  of  the  House,  being  called: 


*  Answers  in  ooDunittee  brought  out  the  fact  that  the  price  of  wheat  on 
the  ahorea  of  Lake  Erie  was  tt  9d,  od  Lake  Ontario,  3«  Ijd,  that  freight 
from  Chicago  to  St.  Catharines  was  M  per  bushel;  tnm  Cleveland  to  St.  Catha- 
rines Od;  thence  to  Kingston  id;  from  Kingston  to  Montreal  7^;  and  from 
Montrcftl  to  Eugland  ii;  while  tnm  Cleveland  to  New  York  the  freight  was 
It  8d,  and  that  wheat  on  Lake  Erie  to  remunerate  the  owner  ought  not  to 
be  less  than  4t  (tl.O(^  per  bushel. 


ili'ii 


Student  of  Early  Canadian  HUtory  29 

"Q.  Are  you  aware  that  Cobourg  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
Government?    A.  I  have  understood  so. 

"Q.  Is  not  the  trade  of  Cobourg  larger  than  from  Port  Hope? 
A.  I  think  so  and  its  being  the  District  town  compels  many 
more  persons  to  resort  to  it. 

"Q.  What  are  your  views  on  the  subject  of  Rice  Lake  navi- 
gation  bemg  generally  used?  A.  At  present  it  costs  sixpence 
per  bushel  to  bring  p.-oduce  to  Port  Hope.  If  th-;  Plank  Road 
is  completed  it  wil!  reduce  this  to  three  pence,  by  bringing  the 
produce  to  Peterborc  and  thence  by  water  to  the  Plank  Road. 
"Q.  Do  you  think  the  penodical  fires  will  endanger  the  -  d 
by  the  new  route?  A.  I  have  often  seen  the  Plains  on  fire; 
it  is  not  as  formidable  as  represented.  There  are  some  farms 
on  the  Plams,  and  the  farmers  generally  run  four  furrows  round 
their  fences,  and  these  protect  them  effectually.  The  same 
precaution  would  in  my  opinion  protect  the  Road.  Answering 
the  question.  Is  the  wheat  brought  to  Peterboro  and  thence  by 
direct  route  to  Cobourg?  Gilchrist  answered:  That  there  are 
several  flouring  mills  on  the  route  where  it  may  be  ground  en 
rovit*  " 

Illustrating  what  were  other  difficulties  of  the  times,  Mr. 
Keeler  further  found  in  an  enquiry  about  postal  facilities  by  a 
Royal  Commission  the  following  amongst  many  other  choice 
bits.  It  is  a  letter  by  Rev.  John  Roaf,  dated  Toronto,  1840, 
in  answer  to  an  official  enquiry.    It  states: 

"A  large  portion  of  the  people  of  this  District  are  so  far  from 
Post  Offices  as  to  be  virtually  destitute  of  accommodation 
from  them.  .  .  .  Many  persons  attribute  this  not  only  to 
political  favoritism  but  to  the  contemptible  purpose  of  driving 
as  many  as  possible  to  the  shops  of  the  postmasters.  .  .  . 
Sometimes  the  English  mail  is  made  up  here  before  half  the 
city  population  is  aware  of  it ;  and  if  a  person  i«  a  day  or  two  late 
his  letter  may  be  eight  or  nine  weeks  in  rei.uimg  England." 

Such  and  much  more  was  the  material  which  Joseph  Keeler 
had  ready  to  discharge  at  the  professor  at  iheir  next  meeting. 


■ii 


Hi' 


I 

liii 


CHAPTER  Vm 
When  Uffeb   Canada  Becaii£  the  Doionaiit  Fabtneb 

It  WM  several  weeks  before  Mr.  Keeler  was  able  to  arrange 
another  evening  with  his  friend,  the  professor:  but,  when  they 
next  met,  he  was  fully  prepared  with  data  wherewith  to  make  a 
very  good  exposition  of  the  commercial  conditions  of  these 
early  years  from  1840  onward,  and  found  that  his  friend,  the 
professor,  who  had  been  saturated  with  the  contents  of  standard 
works  on  the  growth  of  the  Free  Trade  cult  in  England,  pricked 
up  his  ears  and  showed  an  intense  interest  in  figures,  which  gave 
so  completely  the  prices  of  wheat  and  the  cost  of  carriage  in 
Canada  at  the  very  moment  when  Gladstone  as  under  secretary 
jf  the  Board  of  Trade  was  laboring  at  the  tariff  schedules  of 
1,«00  articles,  trying  to  make  them  fit  when  they  would  not, 
and  who  was  forced  finally  in  his  desperate  task  to  advise  Sir 
Robert  Peel  in  December,  1845,  in  the  midst  of  the  most  acute 
commercial  depression  and  serious  political  unrest,  associated 
with  the  poverty  and  sufferings  of  the  unemployed  in  England, 
and  the  disease  and  death  from  famine  in  Ireland,  to  bum  his 
protectionist  ships  and  in  a  single  bill  abolish  entirely  the  taxes 
on  com  and  wheat. 

The  professor  was  just  beginning  his  education  in  a  new  field 
and,  trained  to  study,  learned  rapidly.  The  first  question  which 
naturally  occurred  to  him  to  ask  was:  "How  did  the  almost 
wholly  new  political  and  economic  situation,  developed  in  the 
United  Canadas  after  Lord  Sydenham's  efforts  toward  a  pref- 
erential treatment  of  food  imports  to  England,  affect  immigra- 
tion?" The  professor  was  amazed  at  the  information  he 
obtained. 

"From  the  census  returns  he  found  that  while  Upper  Canada 
had  increased  in  population  from  1811  thus, 

1811 77,000  1841 46S,SS7 

18«4 155,000  1851 952,004 

18S4 820,000 

91 


■fi' 


32 


The  Illumination  of  Joseph  KeeUr,  Esq. 


yet  the  rate  for  the  decade,  1841-1851,  wai  104  per  cent.  He 
further  learned  with  surpriw  that  thU  rate  of  increase  exceeded 
that  in  the  most  rapidly  developing  western  state,  Ohio,  which 
had  in  1850  some  1,080,427  of  population;  but  whose  increase 
in  ten  years  had  b^n  only  33  per  cent,  while  what  was  even  more  . 
marvellous  was  that  the  wheat  acreage  of  Upper  Canada,  though 
but  seven-twelfths  that  of  Ohio,  had  raised  12,675,630,  or  16.25 
bushels  per  acre,  as  compared  with  a  total  of  14,487,351  in 
Ohio." 

The  professor  was,  however,  too  keenly  analytical  to  imagine 
that  this  remarkable  development  of  Upper  Canada  was  due 
solely  to  the  repeal  of  the  Com  Laws,  which  favored  the  United 
States  equally  with  Canada,  although  the  Imperial  Parliament 
did  in  1843  put  a  protective  duty  on  wheat  coming  into  Canada 
from  the  United  States.  Very  properly  he  found  this  marvel* 
lous  increase  in  population  due  to  the  choosing  by  the  unemployed 
population  of  the  Mother  country  of  emigration  as  perhaps  the 
leaser  of  two  evils, — a  forlorn  hope,  indeed,  since  it  meant  an 
ocean  voyage  often  as  long  as  t\so  months  under  conditions  on 
shipboard,  which  today  dare  hardly  be  recorded.  John  Morley, 
writing  of  the  situation  in  England,  says, 

"Commerce  was  languishing.  Distress  was  terrible.  Poor 
Law  rates  were  mounting  and  grants-in-aid  were  extending 
slowly  from  the  factory  districts  to  the  rural.  'Judge,'  then  said 
Peel,  'whether  we  can  with  safety  retrograde  in  manufactures.*  " 

"Then  came  the  failure  of  the  potato  crop  in  Ireland  and  the 
famine  and  distress  attendant  upon  it,  forcing  emigrants  to  the 
United  States,  Canada  and  Australia,  to  the  number  of  1,404,786 
from  1840  to  1850  and  m  1847  alone  there  were  109,680  who 
came  to  Canada.  But  along  with  the  poverty  and  misery  of  the 
poor  emigrant  on  leaving  Britain  came  disease  and  death  in  this 
terrible  year;  the  quarantine  at  Grosse  Isle  in  the  St.  Lawrence 
saw  5,424  victims  of  ship  fever  buried,  with  physicians  and 
clergy  laid  beside  them,  while  hundreds  more  died  at  the  marine 
hospitals  at  Quebec,  and  Montreal  and  en  route  to  towns  farther 
inland.  In  1849  cholera  served  to  fill  in  the  details  of  this 
picture  of  misery,  this  being  the  year  succeeding  the  'Year  of 
Revolutions,'  when  all  Europe  was  an  armed  camp  in  ceaseless 
agitation  due  to  sudden  alarms  from  every  side.    The  decade 


Wkn  Upptr  Canada  Became  Dominant  Partner  SS 

found  Ihe  population  of  Iicluid  decreawd  from  S.ns.lU  to 
6,414.794.  or  «U  per  cent;  whUe  the  efflux  from  Germany  to 
the  United  SUtei,  already  just  a  million  by  1840,  brought  a 
sturdy  freedom-loving  people  during  the  next  decade,  who  gave 
mtelligent  energy  and  labour  to  the  virgin  soils  of  the  prairie 
and  soldiers  to  the  cominp  fiirht.  and  who  perhaps  saved  the 
Union.     With  all  this  inrush  of  people  to  Upper  Canada,  making 
a  total  of  1,S0«.081  by  1681,  a  population  of  only  103,894  was 
found  in  1881  in  her  five  cities,  or  7  per  cent  of  the  total,  then 
thought  adequate  for  all  her  centralised  commercial  needs, 
while  the  products  of  the  farm  alone  amounted  to  (89,129,314. " 
These  astounding  figures  so  far  exceeded  anything  conceived 
by  the  professor  that,  bad  they  not  been  blue-book  statistics, 
for  which  he  bad  a  professional,  even  reverential  respect,  he 
could  not  have  given  them  credence.    The  influx  had  exceeded 
the  almost  fixed  average  of  immigration  for  five  previous  decades 
of  83  per  cent  to  the  United  SUtes  by  over  66  per  cent.    Surely 
nothing  ever  did  more  clearly  demonstrate  the  possibilities  of 
the  natural  wealth  of  the  peninsula,  girt  with  iU  fresh  water 
seas,  bearing  its  wealth  of  primeval  forest,  fanned  in  autumn 
by  the  winnowing  winds  and  fed  from  virgin  soils  sleeping  during 
untold  ages  under  the  deep  calm  of  the  still  winter  whiteness, 
only  to  yield  up  to  the  vernal  sunshine  that  rich  Earth,  which 
but  required  the  touch  of  the  ploughman's  share  to  make  it 
bourgeon  forth  with  the  w  ilth  of  grass  and  grain  demanded  by 
the  needs  of  the  toiling  masses  of  English  towns.    He  thus  began 
to  realise  the  full  meaning  of  that  immanent  Providence  which, 
teaching  men  the  brotherhood  of  man  and  making  them  learn 
the  arts  of  Peace,  had  brought  the  resources  of  Science  to  bear 
on  the  problem  and  in  the  invention  of  the  steam  engine,  pro- 
pelling vessels  across  the  hitherto  measureless  oceans,  and  bearing 
the  fruits  of  the  earth  to  the  sea-board  over  thousands  of  miles 
by  railways,  was  supplying  a  means  by  which  the  congested 
millions  of  old-world  cities  could  escape  their  thraldom,  and, 
finding  use  for  their  energies,  were  now  to  cause  to  disappear 
those  ever-feared  demons  of  famme,  whose  gaunt  forms  from 
time  to  time  had,  during  all  the  past  centuries,  stalked  across 
the  darkened  landscapes  of  the  countries  of  the  world. 


m 
( I 


M 


Tlu  lUuminalim  qf  Jottpk  Kfttr,  Etq. 


The  two  men  grew  lilent  under  the  influence  which  these  old 
figures,  speaking  from  out  past  years,  made  upon  them  and  they 
parted  (or  the  evening,  each  promising  to  follow  up  the  history 
of  events  as  they  marked  the  succeeding  half  century. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Thi;  Heir  or  the  Kecleiu  Under  a  Socul  Clocb 

The  current  of  evenU  hu  glided  along  more  or  leu  event- 
fully  in  the  Keeler  homehold  since  the  evening,  some  month* 
ago,  when  young  Ernest  disturbed  its  even  flow  by  telling  them 
all  of  the  greatness  of  their  paternal  ancestors.  Madam  Keeler 
has  since  then  had  at  least  one  lift  added  to  the  heels  other 
already  unusually  high  shoes  and  has,  perhaps,  on  veiy  impor- 
tant occasions  shaken  the  flounces  of  her  skirts  just  a  little  more 
pronouncedly  than  formerly  and  worn  an  aigrette  on  her  ex- 
pensive hat  somewhat  higher  even  than  its  hitherto  ample 
proportions  possessed.  Neither  has  she  neglected  to  direct  the 
conversation  on  eveiy  convenient  occasion  to  the  absurd  way  in 
which  her  boy  had  come  home,  ranng  about  what  he  and  hii 
father  had  discovered  regarding  the  family  at  Brighton,  the  par- 
ticulars always  being  given  with  a  pleasing  naiceti  when,  after 
aroiismg  curiosity,  she  complied  with  the  request  for  details. 
Even  Miss  Keeler,  who  always  maintained  with  Such  dignity 
the  family  honour,  now  felt  only  the  more  justified  in  her 
pretensions  and  at  club  meetings  had  been  even  more  solic- 
itous in  advancing  the  claims  of  those  descended  from  the 
early  first  families  of  Upper  Canada  to  a  due  and  proper  consid- 
eration, and  impressed  the  young  gentlemen,  emigrit  in  their 
own  eyes  from  England,  who  so  frequently  honoured  with  their 
presence  the  drawing-rooms  where  she  found  herself,  that  it  was 
these  early  emigrants  of  good  families  who  had  really  main- 
tained pure  and  undefiled  the  traditions  which  had  made 
Canada,  for  such  new-comers  as  they,  so  pleasing  a  place  to 
come  and  reside  in,  since  they  could  find  here  at  least  a  few 
of  the  graces  which  had  marked  select  society  at  home. 

Undoubtedly,  however,  the  events  had  run  most  swiftly  for 
the  son  and  heir,  John  Keeler,  during  these  past  months.    It 
had  been  aknost  inevitable  that,  in  the  rushing  torrent  of  busi- 
ness development  and  speculation  in  Toronto,  he  should  have 
as 


30 


Tkt  lUumination  qf  Jom]^  Kuttr^  E»q. 


become  involved  more  or  leu  in  the  real  etUte  trauactionit 
which  bad  atimuUled  u  well  u  fdlowed  the  phenomenal  in- 
creue  of  *  city  which  had  grown  81  per  cent  in  the  ten  yeari  of 
the  censui,  or  from  408.000  to  870.000.  Indeed,  be  had  become 
one  of  a  lyndicate  formed  a  year  or  two  previous  to  exploit  a 
luburban  farm,  lending  especially  his  family  name  as  a  guarantee 
of  stability,  but.  nevertheless,  taking  many  shares,  which  were 
to  be  paid  for  out  of  profits  from  the  sale  of  lots  in  the  rapid 
turnover  expected.  Unfortunately  the  purchase  had  been  made 
at  too  high  figures,  the  extension  of  the  radial  railway,  which 
from  inaide  information  was  to  boom  the  price,  bad  not  mate- 
rialised and  just  now  the  young  lawyer  was  finding  it  extremely 
difl^cult  to  obtain  money  to  meet  the  "calls,"  since  his  income 
as  a  junior  member  of  the  law  firm  was  not  large,  while  his  club 
expenses,  always  nearly  even  with  his  income,  did  not  allow 
him  much  ready  cash  wherewith  t6  meet  such  extra  demands. 
But  what  was  more  unfortunate  was  that  John  Keeler  had  con- 
tracted a  habit.  His  former  occasional  stances  at  a  cent-a-point 
had  now  become  a  nightly  occupation  and  the  betting  at.  brid^t 
became  heavy  in  a  certain  clique  of  which  he  was  one,  while  his 
needs  were  making  him  plunge  more  deeply,  the  nervous  ten- 
sion preventing  him  from  maintaining  the  sang-froid  and  de- 
veloping the  Umche  erudite  of  the  experienced  gambler.  It  was 
not  to  be  supposed  that  the  increasing  irregularities  of  the 
young  man,  his  restlessness  and  irritability,  could  very  long 
escape  the  acute  observation  of  his  father,  who,  while  making 
every  allowance  for  him  as  a  young  man,  understood  too  well 
that  all  such  effects  had  their  legitimate  cause.  Casual  hints  that 
better  hours  and  more  regular  attentwn  to  business  would  seem 
desirable  had  been  met  with  scant  respect,  and,  while  seeming 
to  result  in  some  temporary  improvement,  matters  soon  drifted 
back  into  the  old  routine,  and  Mr.  Joseph  Keeler  was  soon  to 
have  the  unfortunate  fact  brought  home  to  him  that  ancestral 
advantages  of  birth  and  good  breeding,  never,  since  the  days 
when  the  Judges  ruled  Israel  and  the  Scriptures  were  written, 
have  been  a  guarantee  against  moral  laches  and  impioprieties 
of  conduct,  since  we  find  it  written,  regarding  tiie  sons  of  Sam- 
uel the  prophet,  "And  his  sons  walked  not  in  his  ways  but 
tturned  aside  after  lucre  and  took  bribes  and  preverted  Judg- 
ments." 


Tki  Brir  qf  Ikt  KnUri  undtt  a  Socitd  Cloud  S7 

It  WM  thra  with  vniUble  •lam  thmt  Mr.  Knier  mw  in  tin 
P*tM  of  Saturday  M,hl.  which  h»)  b«n  making  for  month. 
wuUughU  on  the  fren.i»d  fl„,n«  ,nd  rr«l  r.t.le  plunging  of 
Toronto  .nd  other  Ciin.diin  ritiei.  reference,  to  a  club  K^andal. 
Which,  while  giving  no  name.,  made  it  perfectly  pl«in  that  the 
cotene  to  whKh  hi.  wn  belonged  had  gotten  into  trouble  with 
the  HouK  Committee,  not  perhap.  primarily  on  account  of  high 
phiy,  but  becauK  a  member  had  been  accuKd  of  cheating     Of 
coune  the  vandal  w«.  invctigated  behind  clowd  door.!  but 
to  Mr.  Kccler  the  yet  more  jaded  appearance  of  hi.  K>n  and  the 
hinu  about  certain  young  men  made  it  quite  obviou.  to  him 
Uiat  hi.  mn  had  been  in  »rae  manner  involved.    So  maitera 
contmued  for  a  .hort  time,  the  «.n,  while  Kerning  to  be  home 
earlier  at  time.,  did  not  in  any  way  a«ume  hi.  oldtime  jaunty 
manner,  but  rather  hi.  irritabUity  and  lack  of  attention  to  the 
ordinaiy  amemtie.  of  home  life  increawd.     The  climax  wa, 
reached,  however,  when  Mr.  Keeler.  coming  home  late  from 
an  entertainment  m  hi.  auto,  suddenly  came  around  the  comer 
upon  hi.  »n  in  a  maudlin  .Ute.  hi.  brother.  Tom.  and  a  friend 
having  been  with  difficulty  conveying  him  home.  tni:-,ting  that 
the  houK  had  a.  usual  become  quiet  and  that  the  intoxicated 
young  man  could  be  .lipped  into  bed  unnoticed.    Mr   Keeler 
now  undemtood  and  reali«d  what  month,  of  vague  hint,  and 
dubiou.  appearance,  meant,  and.  feeling  that  the  famUy  honour 
wa.  at  .take,  became  a.  anxiou.  a.  Tom  that  the  matter  wh  ch 
he  hoped  wa.  the  firat  Mriou.  aberrancy  .hould  be  kept  from 
the  mother  of  the  family.    Hi.  rtem  but  quiet  tone  Krved  in 
some  degree  to  wber  the  young  man  and.  with  Tom'.  awuiUnce 
matters  were  areanged  »  that  the  hou«hold  remained  ignorant 
of  what  had  happened. 

Mr.  Jo«!ph  Keeler  wa.  much  too  prompt  in  businew  matters 
to  allow  an  affair  of  this  kind  to  be  overlooked  or  to  drift  so 
that,  when  John  wa.  known  to  be  sleeping  heavUy.  he  requerted 
lom  to  come  to  the  library.  The  generous,  open-hearted  b-.dier 
came  feehng  as  if  he  were  the  culprit,  and,  while  lov-Jty  to  his 
brother  demanded  that  he  should  make  the  matte"r  appear  as 
little  seriou.  a.  possible,  hi.  own  frank  nature  a.  weU  as  hi. 
knowledge  of  his  father  prevented  him  from  attempting  in  any 


'Ml 


S8 


The  lUuminatim  of  Jotepk  Ketler,  Etq. 


1 !, 


•:  . 


m 


way  to  deceive,  even  thou^  he  tried  to  palliate  hii  brother'a 
faults.    The  father  aaid: 

"Tom,  I  am  greatly  distressed.  I  have  observed  that  John 
has  for  months  been  keeping  later  and  more  irregular  homra; 
that  bis  appearance  in  the  morning  has  indicated  dissipation  of 
the  night  before ;  but  I  never  dreamed  that  one  of  my  sons  could 
ever  so  forget  himself  as  to  be  brought  home  intoxicated.  I 
want  to  know  how  long  this  has  been  going  on  and  whether  or 
not  there  is  any  special  cause  for  such  a  change  in  John?" 

"Father,"  said  Tom,  "I  hope  you  won't  be  too  hard  on  John; 
but  things  have  been  gomg  from  bad  to  worse  ever  smce  John 
got  in  with  that  syndicate  bunch  in  the  FoUie  Park  real-estate 
deal.  You  know  most  of  them  and,  while  some  are  very  nice 
fellows,  the  manager  who  has  little  or  no  stock  in  the  concern, 
and  Sam  Brown,  who  is  president,  have  been  playing  pretty 
sharp  lately  and  by  encouraging  play  and  its  accompaniments 
have  kept  the  crowd  as  much  as  possible  from  realising  just 
how  matters  have  been  going.  They  paid  a  long  price  for  the 
farm,  and  while  some  have  been  able  to  meet  payments,  others, 
and  John  amongst  them,  have  been  getting  farther  behind  every 
day,  and  some  have  been  foolish  enough  to  try  and  make  it  up 
by 'play'  and  others  have  just  kept  playing  because  they  did 
not  know  how  to  get  out." 

"And  to  which  lot  does  John  belong?" 

Tom  looked  at  his  father,  whose  firm,  stem  face  made  decep- 
tion impossible,  and  said: 

"  You  see,  father,  John  just  played  for  sport  at  first,  and  drank 
a  little;  but  as  these  payments  became  pressing  he  had  been  so 
unaccustomed  to  such  calls  upon  him  that  it  made  him  anxious 
and  irritable  and  I  think  that  he  often  played  and  drank  more 
just  to  make  him  forget,  especially  as  the  manager  kept  telling 
him  that  when  the  season  opened  and  the  tramway  ran  past  the 
park,  the  price  of  lots  would  double." 

Again  the  father  asked,  looking  more  anxiously  if  not  more 
sternly: 

"Was  John  mixed  up  in  that  scandal,  which  Saturday  Night 
talked  about?" 

Tom's  face  paled  with  shame  and  fear  at  his  father's  question 


Tht  Heir  cf  Oe  Ktelm  under  a  Social  Cloud  SB 

uttered  in  •  tone  almost  of  anguuh,  yet  knew  that  nothing  but 
the  truth  could  suffice. 

"Yes,  father,  he  was  and,  I  am  ashamed  to  say,  John  was  the 
one  accused  of  cheating." 

Joseph  Keeler  was  as  one  who  had  been  struck  a  deadly  blow, 
for  he  turned  pale  with  shame  rather  than  anger  at  the  very 
suggestion  that  a  son  of  his  could  be  capable  of  a  dishonourable 
act.    His  voice  faltered  as  he  slowly  pioceeded : 

"And  was  it  proved?" 

"Well  father,  I  am  so  sorry  for  John,  the  committee  found 
that  he  had  acted  in  a  miumer  unbecoming  a  gentleman;  but, 
inasmuch  as  he  was  said  to  have  been  intoxicated  at  the  time, 
the  club  ruling  condoned  the  offence  as  not  requiring  his  res- 
ignation, but  he  will  not  be  permitted  to  play  again  in  the  club 
for  a  year.  It  is  the  disgrace,  added  to  this  financial  trouble, 
that  has  driven  him  into  the  condition  you  have  seen  him,  sir." 

There  was  a  filence  for  some  minutes  in  the  library— for  Tom 
as  if  it  were  of  the  tomb— when  it  was  broken  by  Joseph  Kee'er: 

"Tom,  my  boy,  I  need  not  say  that  this  is  a  lesson  for  you." 


\ 


i"l 


I 


CHAPTER  X 
Thk  Pbofessob  A8  a  Stddent  or  Canadian  Econoiocb 

Owing  to  the  pressure  of  business  and  the  urgency  of  distress- 
ing family  matters,  it  was  some  time  before  Mr.  Joseph  Keeler 
could  return  with  any  enthusiasm  to  the  studies,  which  had 
for  him  so  Iieen  an  interest.  But  the  professor  had  been  put 
on  a  keen  scent  and,  like  the  trained  hound,  ran  his  quarry  to 
earth,  so  that  when  he  again  found  himself  in  the  cosy  study  of 
the  Keeler  home,  he  was  not  long  in  taking  up  the  story  which 
Mr.  Keeler  had  brought  up  to  1850.    He  said: 

"Comparing  English  with  Canadian  historical  events,  he 
found,  while  world-wide  British  trade,  now  freed  from  the  shack- 
les of  discriminating  tariffs,  was  rapidly  recovering  from  the 
serious  depression  of  the  '  Forties,'  that  in  Canada  the  enormous 
immigration  had  created  an  era  of  land  speculation,  which  kept 
up  so  long  as  new  towns  could  be  exploit«»i  along  the  lines  of  the 
Great  Western  Railway  now  building  from  Niagara  Falls  to 
Detroit  and  of  the  Grand  Trunk  from  Portland  to  Samia,  and 
as  new  townships  remained  to  be  opened  in  Perth,  Huron  and 
Grey.  Labour,  with  the  employment  of  the  large  number  of 
immigrants  in  railway  building,  remained  high,  and  all  prices 
were  made  still  more  exorbitant  during  the  two  years,  1854- 
1846,  of  the  Russian  war,  in  which  the  wheat  supplies  of  Russia 
were  suddenly  cut  off  from  the  millions  of  needy  mouths  of 
Britain's  work-people,  making  wheat  in  Canada  and  the  neigh- 
borii:g  States  rise  to  »«.60  per  bushel.  Nevertheless  the  crisis 
was  ra.nidly  approaching  which  was  to  so  lessen  Canadian  credit 
that  a  period  of  extreme  depression  was  created,  lighted  only 
by  occasional  sunshine,  which  was  to  last  for  forty  years.  He 
found  that  towns  had  been  laid  out  in  the  Queen's  Bush  even 
and  Sites  held  in  the  nearest  town  of  Guelph  on  the  marketplace 
when;  marquees  were  erected  and  liquors,  even  champagne, 
flo«»<  like  water,  while  the  mad  orgy  of  trading  in  ephemeral 
values  went  on.  The  American  railways,  having  once  reached 
41 


f,1 


J! 


42  The  lUmninoHon  of  Joiepk  Ke^,  Etq. 

Xi:i  Great  Lakes,  continued  akirting  the  southern  shores  and 
even  pushing  into  every  state  east  of  the  Mississippi.  Large 
land  grants  were  given  to  railway  promoters,  and  in  Britain, 
Germany  and  Sweden  their  agents  were  scouring  every  district  to 
secure  immigrants  to  their  lands,  thereby  to  repair  the  damages 
of  the  financial  collapse  which  had  followed  the  Peace  of  Paris, 
18M.  He  found  too  that  immigration  had  become  the  commer- 
cial barometer  in  America,  instead  of  the  price  of  wheat  as  used 
to  be  in  England,  as  seen  in  the  figures  for  these  succeeding 
years.    Thus  the  immigrants  for  different  years  were: 

United  Sialet  Upper  Canada 

IMl «67,8»7  «,6(W 

laM 244,S6i  aa,a',i 

IMS «80,88«  S4,«M 

1M4 19S,08«  48,761 

18M 103,414  17,966 

18i  J 111,887  16,878 

18S''   1«6,90«  «1,0C1 

ISii «»,716  9,704 

1849 70,808  6,688 

1860 119,9«8  9,786 

"  But  he  found  that  another  and  wholly  different  set  of  forces 
were  now  to  affect  the  normal  progress  of  commercial  develop- 
ment in  the  United  States  and  to  react  disastrously  upon  Canada, 
which  for  a  moment  was  the  seeming  temporary  gainer  by  the 
Civil  War,  which  broke  out  in  1861.  North  had  met  South  in 
fratricidal  confiict  and  the  energies  of  a  nation  of  3!i,000,000 
were  engaged  in  the  most  sanguinary  war  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  For  the  moment  immigration  to  the  States  fell  in 
1862  to  64,191;  but  this  did  not  read,  favourably  upon  Canada 
which  had  only  12,717  in  that  year.  The  depression  in  business 
already  following  over-speculation  in  railways  in  the  United 
States  had  encouraged  that  government  to  enter  into  a  reciproc- 
ity agreement  in  18S4  for  ten  years  with  Canada,  which  was 
henceforth  to  become  a  doorway  to  the  Northern  States,  and 
horses  sold  at  high  prices  and  food  supplies  of  every  kind  found 
free  access  and  at  favourable  returns  during  the  four  exhaust- 
ing years  which  followed.  In  spite  of  the  war,  however,  the 
inmiigration  to  the  States  rose  to  191,114  m  1864;  remained  at 


Studmt  of  Canadian  Econamict 


48 


that  untU  alter  the  North  was  victorious  when  it  tt  once  in- 
creased to  SS2,{rr  in  1887.  While,  however,  the  local  trade  of 
Canada  seemed  for  the  moment  prosperoiu*  ip.  these  years,  polit- 
ical ferment  between  the  opposing  proidnces,  accentuatnl  by 
racial  and  religious  mistrust  between  the  two  dominant  races  in 
the  United  Canadas,  made  any  progressive  movement  towqrda 
national  development  impossible.  The  year  1864  saw  the 
Reciprocity  Treaty  abrogated;  while  the  one  brigut  gleitm  of 
national  hope,  which  shone  with  the  crowning  Act  of  Confed- 
eration in  1867,  came  too  late  in  any  way  to  counter-baUuce 
the  glorious  sense  of  power  and  national  resourcefulness  felt  by 
the  victorious  Northern  States.  Canada  was  forgotten,  when  a 
triumphant  people,  now  nearly  40,000,000,  turned  the  energies 
of  millionii  of  disbanded  soldiers  back  into  the  walks  of  peace. 
The  railways,  already  wide-spread,  were  pushed  westward  from 
the  stanopoint  both  of  national  security  and  unity  and  of 
commercial  development,  and  1869  saw  a  railway  uniting  with 
iron  bands  the  people  and  destinies  of  a  whole  continent  be- 
tween two  oceans  and  gave  a  nation,  who  had  fought  to  be  free, 
an  intrinsic  sense  of  ability  to  dare  to  do  and  accomplish,  aided 
by  the  telegraph  and  steam  engine, — ^the  necromancers  of  the 
modem  world — deeds  in  peace  never  imagined,  much  less 
equalled  elsewhere.  A  nation  had  found  its  soul  and  its  spiritual 
essence  blossomed  forth  in  works  of  material  accompli^ment, 
which,  however  crude,  illustrated  the  spirit  of  their  Viking 
ancestors  of  a  thousand  years  before." 

All  this  the  professor  now  read  into  the  cold  facts  u'  history 
and  turning  his  eyes  upon  puny  Canada  beheld  a  series  of  dis- 
connected provinces  with  no  sense  of  unity,  no  common  interests, 
no  trustful  spirit,  no  conscious  hope.  The  most  promised  for 
the  darksome  future  was  that  the  Confederation  Act  contained 
a  clause  providing  for  the  building  of  the  Intercolonial  Railroad 
from  Canada  to  the  sea  at  Halifax  and  to  this  end  a  loan  of 
£3,000,000  was  guaranteed  by  the  British  Government.  The 
professor  had  abeady  seen  that  immigration  had  almost  ceased; 
he  learned  from  the  Committee  of  Agriculture  of  the  Legisla- 
ture in  18«9  that  the  Grand  Tnmk  Railway,  built  with  the 
money  of  English  bondholders,  had  had  its  agents  in  Germany 
anu  Sweden,  booking  passengers  for  the  longest  haul  to  Chicago 


ifl 


44 


The  lUumination  qf  Jotepk  KeeUr,  Etq. 


'^lU 


and  the  West,  and  found  it  stated  that  of  the  few  who  entered 
as  immigranta  at  Quebec,  almost  none  stayed  in  Canada.  He 
now  understood  upon  what  basis  continental  expansion  de- 
pended: viz.,  that  of  virgin  land  for  cultivation  of  wheat,  and  as 
yet  Canada  had  no  western  territories.  Committees  of  the  Leg- 
islature had  had  Simon  Dawson,  the  explorer,  and  others  tell 
them  of  the  Lone  Land  beyond  the  Great  Lakes,  behind  the 
rock-ribbed  interminaUe  areas  of  spruce  forests  and  deep- 
basined  water  stretches  of  the  western  Laurentians.  These 
travellers  told  of  a  land  of  black,  deep  soil,  where  the  common 
crops  of  the  East  might  grow;  but  which  now  was  the  home  of 
Indian  tribes  and  a  few  scattered  half-breed  settlements,  some 
En^h  but  mostly  French,  but  all  tied  to  the  chariot  wheels 
— or  canoe  stems — of  the  Great  Hudson's  Bay  Company. 

Such  was  the  story  which,  as  it  increased  in  volume,  grew  in 
intensity  of  interest  with  the  telling  of  the  professor,  who,  proud 
of  his  researches,  yet  with  a  new-found  sympathy,  told  it  with 
growing  emphasis  as  he  paced  the  floor  before  his  friend  whom 
he  held  spellbound  with  his  eloquent  periods.  Becoming  con- 
scious of  being  entrapped  into  an  unwonted  enthusiasm,  he  said: 

**But,  Mr.  Keeler,  I  have  been  doing  all  the  talking  and  have 
been  telling  what  to  you  are  conmionplaces  and  matters  of  your 
own  experience." 

"No,  indeed,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "I  am  sincerely  grateful  to 
you,  for  you  have  condensed,  what  it  is  quite  true  I  have  known 
but  never  apprehended  in  its  full  meaning,  the  hiFtory  of  a  period 
which  is  the  length  almost  of  my  whole  life,  into  a  living  picture, 
which,  as  you  recall  its  details,  enables  me  to  see  the  very  actors 
in  it  come  upon  the  stage  and  play  their  parts  as  in  a  kinemat- 
ograph,  and  I  shall  ever  thank  you  for  having  worked  into  the 
very  texture  of  the  series  of  pictures  scenes  which  make  a  veri- 
table drama  of  the  history  of  Canada  as  I  have  known  it.  There 
are,  of  course,  dozens  of  personal  experiences  which  I  can  give 
you  of  the  events  of  those  t^ro  decades  which  you  have  illumi- 
nated so  well;  but.  in  essence  you  have  given  the  history." 

The  professor  said,  **How  dearly  I  would  like  to  hear  some 
of  them  from  you!  " 

"Well,  you  will  remember,**  said  Ikfr.  Keeler.  "I  was  but  a 
child  when  the  American  war  b^an  and  the  first  thing  I  recall 


Studtta  rf  Canadian  Eeonomia 


45 


i*  the  excitement  in  CanuU  over  the  Trent  affcir,  when  eveiy- 
wheie  they  began  to  form  volunteer  companies  and  itart  drilling. 
Ot  courae  I  knew  nothing  o{  what  it  meant;  but  I  remember  well 
the  great  Review  as  early  as  1862  when  some  5,000  troops  were 
assembled  on  the  Garrison  Common,  and  when  the  Thirteenth 
Huaaais  and  the  Rifle  Brigade  and  batteries  o{  artillery  marched 
and  countermarched  and  skirmished  all  day,  having  associated 
with  them  our  own  Queen's  Own  and  Grenadiers.  I  was  so 
anxious  to  get  near  the  horsemen  as  they  marched  oS  the  fiehl 
that  I  found  myself  nmning  along  holding  on  to  the  stirrup  of  a 
Hussar  who  talked  to  and  petted  me;  but  1 6nally  got  lost  in  the 
crowd  and  was  found  crying  by  one  who  knew  my  father  and 
took  me  home.  After  that,  every  boy  at  school  was  a  soldier, 
and  we  boys  formed  a  company  and  got  our  mothen  to  make  us 
red  jackets  trimmed  vith  white  braid,  black  forage  caps  with  a 
white  band,  and  black  trousers  with  a  broad  white  stripe  down 
them.  We  cut  and  planed  blocks  of  wood,  paintn'  them  black 
and  put  them  on  black  polished  belts  for  cartridge  boxes  and 
even  cut  heavy  blocks  of  wood  and  strapped  them  on  as  knap- 
sacks. On  a  Saturday,  more  than  once  our  squad  of  boys 
assembled  early  at  one  end  of  the  street,  got  the  smaller  boys 
hitched  to  our  plsy  wagons,  loaded  with  sheets,  blankets  and 
clothes-horses  borrowed  from  our  mothers  and  marched  in  fine 
form  to  a  vacant  lot,  where  we  bivouaced  for  the  day;  took  our 
tin  pails  and  boiled  potatoes  and  fried  eggs  and  meat  in  our 
borrowed  spiders;  had  the  parade  and  sham  fight  after  dinner 
and  marched  home,  tired  and  cross  perhaps,  but  saturated  with 
the  military  enthusiasm  of  the  time.  We  went  further  even  and 
became  attached  to  a  company  whose  drill  quarters  were  nearby, 
and  they  bought  fifes  and  drums  for  us  and,  except  on  official 
parades,  we  were  the  band  to  march  out  with  them.  You  could 
not  know  what  it  meant,  for,  toward  the  latter  part  of  the  war, 
there  were  a  lot  of  disreputable  Irish  soldiers  across  the  Line 
who  stimulated  the  old  antagonism  to  Great  Britain  amongst 
the  Americans,  made  the  more  acute  by  the  Trent  affair,  and 
the  more  or  less  openly  expressed  sympathy  of  certain  British 
papers  tor  the  South.  Their  emissaries  came  to  Canada,  and 
stirred  up  a  disaffection,  which,  perhaps  never  very  serious, 
caused  reports  of  secret  drillings  and  the  hiding  of  thousands  of 


Tkt  lUuminalim  qfjotepk  JCwbr,  Etq. 


M 

•tandi-of-unu,  ind  preparatioiu  mt  a  ngnal  for  •  riling  united 
by  Feniu  invaders  hom  the  South  to  wreit  Canada  fram  per- 
6dioiu  Albion.  The  time*  were  (uU  of  terron  for  the  young 
and  exciUment  for  thoM  older.  I  remember  well  looking  over 
my  father'!  ihoulder  aa  he  read  aloud  from  hii  daily  paper  the 
account  of  the  auaaaination  of  President  Lincoln,  and  recall  the 
•till  more  aerioua  affair  of  the  Fenian  Raid  at  Fort  Erie. 

"All  of  us  boyi  went  to  lee  the  Queen's  Own  embark  for  Port 
Dalhousie  on  June  1,  1866,  and  we  waited  in  breathless  excite- 
ment for  news  of  the  fight  which  all  the  next  day  was  taking 
place  at  Ridgeway.     i  hen  too  we  followed  with  the  crowd  on 
the  Monday  after,  when  the  bodies  of  the  d«ad,  Unded  at  Yonge 
Street  Wharf,  were  given  a  military  funeral,  and  especially  do  I 
lemember  the  names  of  the  men  of  Company  K,  your  old  Var- 
sity Company,  McKeude,  Mewbum  and  Tempest,  who  were 
killed  out  of  a  total  of  forty  in  a  few  minutes  in  the  Limeridge 
part  of  the  fi^t,  and  recall  dear  old  Professor  Vander  who, 
though  badly  wounded,  is  I  still  sac  on  deck  in  the  University. 
"Of  course  I  joined  the  Cadet  Company  at  Upper  Canada 
College,  when  old  enough,  and  later  recall  how  the  martial 
spirit  stayed  with  us  when  one  summer  three  of  my  Form  stole 
away  and  enlisted  in  the  Queen's  Own  to  go  to  Niagara  Camp 
and  of  old  Principal  Cockbum's  translation  of  the  Horatian 
couplet  as  he  satirically  spoke  of  the  runaways: 
***Ihdet  et  decorum  est,  pro  patria  nwrit*" 
"'How  sweet  and  fine  a  thing  it  is  to  eat  a  mutton  pie.'" 
"We  did  not  know  then — none  in  Canada  knew — ^that  out 
of  this  temporary  ebullition  of  traditional  Hibernian   dislike 
for  the  Anglo-Saxon,  or,  perhaps,  more  really  owing  to  the  ab- 
sence of  any  occupation  lOr  the  moment  for  disbanded  soldiers, 
was  transmuted  much  more  rapidly  than  in  any  other  way 
possible  into  a  sturdy  Canadian  spirit,  the  various  opposing 
elements  of  the  West  and  the  East.'" 


m 
ill 


CHAPTER  XI 

Jaaa>H  Keeleh  Recalib  Commebcul  and  Poutical  Events 
or  Forty  Yeabs 

The  evenU  of  the  yeara  folh.wing  1870  wen  deeply  atamped 
upon  the  memoiy  of  Jowph  Keeler,  for  it  wu  in  187S  that  he 
wai  brought,  aa  a  young  man  in  his  father'a  warehouse,  face  to 
face  with  one  of  the  longest  periods  of  buaineaa  depreaaion, 
which  Canada  had  known.  So  it  waa  easy  for  him  to  give,  aa 
he  did  at  their  next  meeting,  details  to  the  professor  covering 
the  crisis,  which  was  a  sequence  to  the  financial  collapse  follow- 
ing the  Black  Friday,  18th  of  September,  187S,  in  New  York, 
when  the  Jay  Cook  Company  waa  forced  to  cloae  the  doora  of  its 
broking  and  banking  house,  while  having  14,000,000  on  depoait 
and  holding  «U,000,000  of  the  bonds  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railway.  Many  thousand  miles  of  railway  had  been  built 
during  the  previous  ten  years,  enormous  subsidies  by  the  Federal 
Government  from  (16,000  to  even  «48,000  per  mile  on  the  moun- 
tam  aections  had  been  advanced  to  the  Credit  Mobilier,  which 
financed  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  to  San  Franciaco;  while 
the  total  expenditurea  on  railwaya  for  these  years  was  $1,700,- 
000,000.   He  said: 

"The  people  of  the  United  States  had  been  alarmed,  if  not 
ahocked,  at  the  revelations  of  too  close  relations  between  sena- 
tors and  members  of  the  House  and  the  Credit  Mobilier,  so  that 
the  orgy  of  speculation  and  of  railway  building,  without  aa  yet 
receipts  from  the  traffic,  as  their  lands  were  not  widely  settled, 
came  to  a  logical  end,  as  all  debauches  must,  and  the  breaking 
of  the  banks  of  financiera,  the  breaking  of  the  hearts  of  widows 
and  the  breaking  of  the  brains  of  thouaanda  of  overwrought 
buameaa  men  all  came  together.  And  the  pity  of  it  all  was  that 
the  panic  did  not  remain  south  of  the  line.  Canada  waa  poor 
but,  nevertheless,  the  fever  of  railway  promoting  was  in  the  aur. 
Then  were  planned  and  partly  constructed  the  Canada  South- 
em  and  Airline  railways  across  the  Lake  Erie  peninsula,  aa  well 
« 


^^^  TIi*  tUuminalum  oj  Jattrk  KhUt,  Etq. 

M  the  WeUington,  Gray  and  Bruce  and  Credit  Valley  roadi; 
while  a  Government  went  out  of  power  due  to  nupicioni  o/  an 
improper  intimacy  between  iti  memben  and  a  company  pro- 
moting the  great  national  enterpriie,  the  Pacific  railway,  which 
waa  to  connect  coait  with  coast,  and  ultimately  to  prove  even 
a  greater  bond,  becaUK  it  wa«  lo  much  more  necewaiy,  to  bridge 
over  the  great  gap  of  wildemeu  between  Ontario  and  the  Weat. 
"But  this  wai  not  yet  to  be.  The  method  later  propoaed  of 
building  it  in  aectiona,  part  waterways  and  part  railways,  how- 
ever in  keeping  with  the  financial  resources  of  the  country  at 
that  time,  was  wholly  inadequate  to  fulfil  the  requirements  of 
the  situation,  and  from  1872  to  1882  commercial  stagnation 
marked  Canada  to  a  degree  before  unparalleled,  and  the  migra- 
tion of  Canadians  across  the  border  ruse  to  such  figures  ^M  had 
never  before  been  equalled,  as  seen  in  the  following  list  of  yearly 
emigrants  from  Canada  into  the  United  States: 

Emigrants  from  Canada  to  United  States 

1870 40,411  1877 ««,lia. 

1871 47,082  1878 2S,M8 

1872 40,178  1870 31,288 

187S 37,871  1880 99,706 

1874 32,900  1881 12«,S91 

I87t 24,SS1  1882 92,205 

1878 22,471 

"So  remarkable,  however,  did  the  trade  revival  in  the  United 
States  become  after  the  five  years'  depression  from  187S  to  1878, 
that,  while  the  total  immigration  to  that  country  in  1878  was 
only  138,000,  it  rose  in  1880  to  347,000  while  that  from  Canada 
to  the  United  States  multiplied  three  times  within  three  years. 
This  stream,  whose  fiow  had  lessened  during  the  five  years  fol- 
lowing the  1873  panic,  had  risen  to  its  height  is  1881,  to  decluie 
again  only  for  a  time  after  this,  when  the  outlet  to  Manitoba 
through  Minnesota  had  been  found. 

"I  fancy,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "that  the  real  extent  and  mean- 
ing of  this  depopulatii  '  as  it  actually  existed  then,  was  not 
known  even  to  the  public  and  business  men  of  that  time,  and  it 
has  needed  a  decade  of  expansion  such  as  that  of  the  past  ten 
years  for  them  in  any  degree  accurately  to  estimate  or  compre- 
hend the  strength  of  the  centripetal  forces,  which  the  chum- 


Commercial  Bud  Polilieal  Btmit  of  Forlf  Ytari  M 

ing  o(  the  immigration  ocean  by  tlie  great  American  octopiu 
created  during  thoie  many  yean,  caiuing  the  people  from  every 
countiy  and  beyond  all  from  ita  neighbor  Canada  to  be  drawn 
within  the  reach  of  ita  tentaclea  and  to  be  alowly  awallowed  up 
to  tlw  number  of  over  2,000,000  by  1900  from  Canada  alone." 

It  would  have  lieen  hard,  indeed,  for  the  profeaaor  to  appre- 
ciate the  full  meaning  of  thia  tragic  recital,  had  be  not  lived  in 
Canada  duHng  the  decade  of  1890-1000,  and  been  an  inter- 
ested witneia  of  the  enormous  development  during  the  succeed- 
ing decade.  He  recalled  to  Mr.  Kecler  how  he  had  come  to 
Canada  in  time  to  witness  the  third  strange  political  agitation, 
which  like  those  of  1837  and  1840,  had  for  ita  object  closer,  even 
political,  relationa  with  the  United  Statea.  Ita  cry  "Commer- 
cial Union"  had  originated  in  New  York  with  two  ci-dmmt 
Canadiana,  Wyman  and  Glenn,  and  in  Canada  waa  foatered  by 
that  literary  giant,  but  political  enigma.  Professor  Goldwin 
Smith.  Supported  by  a  newspaper,  financed  and  edited  by  men, 
previously  conaervativea,  a  great  impetus  was  given  to  a  move- 
ment, which  appealed  especially  to  the  opponents  of  high 
tbriffa  in  both  countries,  owing  to  the  melancholy  results  com- 
mercially of  the  decade,  which  had  opened  with  a  bUre  of  trum- 
pets, regarding  what  the  new  Canadian  Paci8c  Railway  begun 
in  1881  waa  to  do  in  opening  up  the  Great  West.  Its  first 
through  train  to  the  Coast,  leaving  Montreal,  June  t^,  1888, 
was  indeed  an  impetus  to  western  settlement;  but  there  had 
been  aheady  dissatisfaction  over  the  land  laws  in  the  West. 
Indeed  the  Half-Breed  rebellion  of  188«  grew  out  of  thia;  while 
time,  under  the  beat  of  conditiona,  waa  needed  to  overcome  the 
prejudice  against  the  countt^  and  its  climate,  where  plagues 
of  locusts  had  occurred  aa  recently  as  187S  and  frosts  had  not 
infrequently  injured  the  wheat  and  droughts  had  occurred  as 
late  as  1886.     .     .     . 

Mr.  Keeler  here  broke  in : 

"As  I  look  back  on  those  seemingly  so  hopeless  days  for 
Canada  and  find  from  the  blue  book  returns  that  not  only  did 
the  population  not  increase  through  immigration  to  any  notable 
extent,  but  further  that  we  actually  were  short  in  our  total  popu- 
lation in  1891  by  120,000  of  what  we  should  have  had,  had  we 
retamed  our  natural  increase  for  the  ten  years,  I  wonder  why 


M 


Tlu  IttuminatiM  rf  Jotph  K-Ur,  Eiq. 


«•  *U  did  not  low  faith  entirely  in  our  futura.  Only  tliinli  of  it, 
the  agiregate  foreign  trade  of  tU  Canada  in  1888  ai  eompued 
with  1881  had  increaaed  by  only  «400,000  while  that  for  the 
dreary  yean  fiam  1870-1880  had  even  increaaed  by  14,000,000. 

"The  nadir  waa  reached  when  a  financial  criiii,  beginning 
in  the  United  SUtet  in  1800,  reached  it<  height  in  188S.  Thia 
hopeleianeia  ii  perhape  not  greatly  to  be  wondered  at  when, 
although  trade  ilowly  improved  after  1803,  the  export  price  of 
wheat  from  18S1  to  1880  roee  only  once  to  80  cent*  per  buahel, 
and  fell  in  1880  actually  to  18  centi,  while  that  of  potatoea  for 
the  lame  period  row  but  once  to  fO  centj  and  averaged  a*  low 
aa  98  centa  per  buahel.  There  aeemed  but  one  adequate  explana- 
tion for  thia  whole  lituation,  lo  directly  aSecting  not  alone  the 
growth  of  the  Canadian  West,  but  even  more  that  of  the  old 
Lake  ihoie  countiea  of  my  native  diatrict,  and  thia  waa  the 
eztraordinaiy  development  of  the  Weatem  American  Statea. 

"I  find  for  instance  that  to  the  twelve  North  Central  SUtea 
during  1880-1880  there  was  an  immigration  of  1,143,281,  which,  ~ 
however,  was  less  than  the  percentage  increase  for  the  same 
sUtea  from  1870  to  1880.  But  it  made  a  toUl  population  for 
thia  area  of  n,410,417  in  1880,  which  had  increased  by  ItOO 
to  M,330,000  of  whom  48  per  cent  were  foreign  bom,  over 
(,000,000  being  Canadians. 

"Bemember  too  that  while  thia  caused  an  enormous  growth 
in  Chicago,  and  some  of  the  western  urban  centres,  it  meant 
also  an  increase  in  the  farms  of  thia  central  western  area  from  ~ 
1,000,000  in  1870  to  2,000,000  in  round  numbers  in  1890.  Put 
that  there  waa  a  limit  to  the  available  land  there  is  shown  in. 
the  fact  that  the  increase  in  farms  from  1870  to  1880  was  SO 
per  cent,  while  between  1880  and  1900  it  was  only  14  per  cent. 

"You  see  then,  professor,"  continued  Mr.  Keeler,  "when 
these  several  elements  of  our  problem  are  brought  together 
that  they  present  a  group  of  conditions  in  some  degree  helping 
to  its  solution,  and  we  thus  find  in  Ontario  and  the  older 
provincea  only  an  accentuation  of  the  process,  which  went  on 
in  the  old  Eastern  States  for  several  decadea;  with  thia  distinc- 
tion, however,  that  while  the  whole  of  old  Canada  was  for  forty 
years  being  drained  of  her  population,  the  westward  movement 
at  any  rate  kept  the  old  New  England  population  within  their 


> 


Comnunial  md  FoHtieol  Efnlt  tf  forty  Yton 


«l 


own  country.  DoubthH  it  ii  •  novcment  rimiUr  to  thii  which 
nuy  lie  (t  the  bottom  of  the  fenerml  depicHJon  and  Heminf 
•iricultunl  ratragreuion  in  the  old  dietrict  down  on  Praaqu'- 
U*  Bay;  but  the  nibject,  now  that  we  have  nally  begun  to 
inveetigate  it  hiitorically,  ii  becoming  ol  abeorbing  interest  and 
I  hope  we  togetlier  may  determine  in  what  direction  thia  moat 
•eriou>  condition,  affecting  the  welfare  of  our  old  Province 
•hould  beet  turn  the  energiea  of  her  people." 

The  buiineu-like  grouping  of  commercial  and  hiitorical  fact# 
made  by  the  man  of  aflain  wai  a  lource  of  intense  admiration 
to  the  profeuor,  who  remarked  in  riling  to  go: 

"Well,  Mr.  Keeler,  it  i>  once  more  the  proof  of  the  old  icien- 
tific  adage  trperientia  dee*l,  which  we  now  translate  into  'It  is 
necessary  to  experiment  in  order  to  lesm,'  and  certainly  you 
old  Canadians  must  have  had  either  great  faith  for  forty  years 
in  your  future  or  an  intense  patriotism  like  that  of  the  IVnlese 
or  Swiss  for  their  mountain  glens  to  resist  the  loadstone  of  com- 
meicial  advantages  and  huge  business  attractions,  which  you 
have  so  well  illustrated  in  this  picture  o(  the  growth  of  the  Amer- 
ican West.  But  it  does  seem,  as  you  say,  as  if  the  Old  East  in 
Canada  is  today  having  the  same  depleting  process  repeated, 
and  I  wonder  if  there  is  to  be  a  forty  years*  further  drain  on 
these  old  provinces,  which  have  supplied  the  very  essentials  not 
only  of  men,  the  primary  condition  to  development,  but  also 
of  the  intellectual,  social  and  political  elements  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  West.   We  must  study  this  further.   Goodnight!" 


CHAPTER  Xn 
The  Exit  op  John  Keblbr  pbom  Frenzied  Finance 

It  was  Mveral  months  since  the  first  shadow  came  over  the 
Keeler  house,  and  unfortunately  H  had  remained  there.  Mr. 
Keeler  had  hoped  that  the  lesson  which  had  come  to  his  eldest 
son  would  have  proved  salutuy;  but  the  young  man's  personal 
pride  was  hurt — the  lesson  bad  not  reached  his  conscience.  He 
placed  the  blame  of  his  fall  upon  others  rather  than  openly  and 
frankly  going  to  his  father  and  saying  "I  have  sinned."  As  usual 
in  such  cases,  the  spiritual  in  the  man  being  in  abeyance,  the  phy- 
sical dominated  the  actions  of  John  Keeler,  and  instead  of  turning 
over  a  new  leaf,  he  went  about  in  a  sullen  mood,  avoided  the 
family  circle  and,  instead  of  improving  his  nervous  tone,  was 
quite  evidently  indul>r  g  secretly  in  what  had  now  become  in  his 
unhealthy  opinion,  a  physical  necessity.  He  did  not  abandon  his 
club  entirely,  for  that  would  have  b  en  to  confess  his  fault;  but 
he  went  elsewhere  and  made  associates  of  otheis,  who,  like  him- 
self, had  fallen  into  irregular  habits.  This,  of  course,  Mr.  Keeler 
came  to  know  through  Tom  and,  instead  of  John  Keeler  appre- 
ciating the  delicacy  of  his  father's  treatment  of  him  hitherto,  he 
chose  to  wear  an  air  of  injured  independence,  which  made  it 
impossible  for  any  frank  approach  from  either  side. 

He  perhaps  seemed  to  give  more  hours  to  his  legal  duties;  but 
even  this  proved  to  be  but  a  cloak  to  cover  his  absence  from  the 
home  at  normal  hours.  The  mother  and  sisters,  though  still 
ignorant  of  what  had  taken  place,  were  of  course  made  aware  erf 
his  irritable  moods;  but  the  fond  mother  set  it  all  down  to  Jack's 
overworking  at  the  office,  and  extenuated  a  peevishness,  which 
mwe  properly  was  only  a  rude  selfishness. 

But  it  was  not  to  be  supposed  that  when  matters  of  this  kind 
had  gcme  wrong  th^  would  correct  themselves,  unless  the  prime 
agent's  attitude  from  the  moral  standpoint  changed,  and  John 
Keeler  had  not  changed.  There  still  ever  remained  impending 
fear  of  certain  actions  in  the  matters  of  the  Real  Estate  Company 


The  Ittumination  tf  Jcaeph  Ketltr,  Etq. 


jj 


ilib. 


coming  to  li^t,  coupled  yaih  hia  failure  to  meet  payments  on 
"cails"  for  stock  held  by  him.  As  solicitor  and  secretuy  of  the 
company  he  had  frequently  received  small  payments  from  pur- 
chasers of  lots  to  be  sent  to  the  treasurer;  but  when  losses  at  cards 
had  occurred,  he  had  for  the  moment  used  these  bums,  intending 
of  course  to  turn  them  in  next  d^y.  Such,  however,  had  now 
grown  into  a  considerable  sum,  and  it  became  inevitable  that  the 
time  for  accounting  must  soon  come.  His  associates  even,  some 
of  equivocal  commercial  morality  themselves,  knowing  of  his 
club  scandal  and  his  more  irregular  habits  could  no  longer  for 
their  own  safety  delay  action.  So  it  came  about  that  at  the 
semi-annual  directors*  meeting  the  amounts  of  the  outstanding 
accounts  of  John  Keeler  in  the  matter  of  stock  payments  and 
moneys  received  came  up  for  consideration  along  with  others. 
With  characteristic  tnwnirtance,  he  made  his  defence,  urging  that 
others  were  behind  in  stock  payments  as  well,  and  that  the  extra 
legal  work  placed  upon  him  more  than  made  up  for  the  seeming 
irregularities.  The  booming  of  land  sales  had,  however,  latterly 
fallen  flat,  and  the  directors  were  in  no  mood  to  accept  excuses 
for  these  easy-going  methods,  since  they  were  sadly  in  need  of 
funds  for  payments  due  on  the  farm  purchased.  Young 
Keeler's  irritating  attitude  of  superiority  only  made  matters 
worse,  until  at  length  after  high  words,  a  resolution  was  passed 
"Requiring  that  an  accounting  be  nuute  within  one  month  of  all 
moneys  received  by  him  as  solicitor  and  that  if  these  were  not 
paid  as  well  as  all  payments  on  stock  overdue,  legal  action  would 
be  taken  against  him  by  the  company.  Meanwhile  the  solici- 
tor's work  was  to  be  done  elsewhere."  The  resolution  was 
passed  not  without  a  sense  of  indecency  on  the  part  of  some  of 
the  Board,  since  they  had  especially  counted  on  the  social  stand- 
ing of  the  son  of  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq.,  and  on  the  prominence  of 
the  father  in  large  business  afiFairs  to  give  their  company  a  finan- 
cial standing.  But  the  human  selfishness  in  business,  as  else- 
where, and  the  toutw  qui  peut  of  the  speculator  have  no  delicacy 
of  soitiment  and  the  inexperienced  young  solicitor,  who  had 
ynan  so  superior  an  air.  was  now  to  suffer  ui  injury  to  his  pride, 
whkh  for  him  was  infinitely  more  intense  than  any  sense  of  un- 
ffntunate  peraonu  hiUuts  had  as  yet  produced  in  him.    Its  im- 


Tht  Exit  of  John  Ktdtr  from  Frmuiti  Finance  U 

mediate  and  almoit  inevitable  leault  waa  a  period  of  debauch  lo 
aerioiu  and  prolonged  that  it  could  no  longer  be  hidden  from  his 
brother  and  father.  The  ihock  to  Joaeph  Keeler,  when  Tom 
•tated  what  he  had  gradually  learned  as  street  gossip  about  the 
directors*  meeting,  as  we  recall  his  pride  in  the  business  prob- 
ity of  the  Keeler  name,  which  in  Toronto  had  become  a  tradi- 
tion, may  well  be  imagined. 

His  son  and  heir  had  not  only  fallen  into  irregular  personal 
habits,  but  he  had  also  marred  the  family  escutcheon.  Imme- 
diate and  prompt  action  was  demanded;  but  it  is  unnecessary  to 
relate  the  painful  scene  between  the  father,  who  felt  bis  personal 
honor  cruelly  injured,  and  his  son,  who  with  nerves  unstrung 
was  now  forced  by  personal  fear  of  prosecution  for  financial 
irregularities  to  tell  to  the  father  the  shameful  nature  of  his 
gambling  debts,  his  misuse  of  funds  and  the  amounts  of  the  pay- 
ments demanded  by  the  company.  Even  at  this  moment  the 
superior  John  Keeler,  the  mother's  favourite,  only  saw  one  mean- 
ing in  St.  Paul's  words,  "The  strength  of  sm  is  the  law."  Not 
yet  had  come  to  him  that  other  truth,  "that  it  is  the  renunciation 
of  self  and  the  giving  himself  for  others,"  which  was  the  only 
measure  of  his  personal  reconciliation  with  the  law  of  the 
highest  Master  of  Morals. 

Joseph  Keeler  did  not  hesitate  for  a  moment  to  demand  a 
statement  from  the  company  of  his  son's  liabilities  and,  when 
received,  to  pay  them  all  to  the  full,  and  to  sever  his  son's  rela- 
tions completely  with  the  company,  feeling  assured  that  the 
whole  question  of  his  son's  future  must  be  considered  from  a 
wholly  new  standpoint.  Meanwhile  the  young  fellow  was  quite 
unstrung  and  the  panacea  of  a  change  of  scene  must  be  at  once 
tried.  As  it  was  necessary  in  the  interests  of  business,  Tom  took 
his  brother  on  a  trip  to  the  West  Indies,  and  for  the  moment  we 
may  leave  the  young  fellows  not  displeased  at  their  absence  from 
a  very  unpleasant  situation.  Joseph  Keeler,  Esq.,  during  these 
past  few  months,  has  distinctly  aged;  the  mother,  who  of  ne- 
cessity learned  of  her  son's  misbehaviour,  has  if  quieter  in  man- 
ner not  ceased  to  carry  herself  with  an  air  of  even  greater 
personal  superiority,  as  if  assured  that  the  expansiveness  of  her 
socially  protecting  wings  would  adequately  suffice  to  more  than 


se 


Thi  lUuminaiion  <4  Joieph  Ktder,  Etq. 


balance  the  peccadiUoea  at  a  whole  family.  Besides  did  she 
not  know  "that  it  was  those  vulgar  men  her  son  was  forced  to 
associate  with  as  solicitor  to  that  land  company,  who  had  been 
the  cause  of  the  whole  trouUe.  She  knew  her  Jack  was  all 
right!" 


I  ^! 


CHAPTER  Xni 
BniAL  Dsporoi^TioN  and  Ubsan  Ovirpopulation 

It  wa»  inevitable  that  some  relationship  either  real  or  acci- 
dental between  those  distressing  family  affavs  of  which  he  had 
so  recent  experience  and  the  political,  economic  and  social 
movements,  which  had  become  for  him  so  absorbing  a  study, 
should  impress  itself  upon  the  mind  of  Mr.  Joseph  Keeler,  the 
hitherto  even  flow  of  whose  life  had  never  given  him  occasion 
for  serious  thought  on  such  matters.  He  unconsciously  com- 
pared the  fuU,  bounding  and  successful  rural  life  of  Upper  Can- 
ada before  the  "Sixties, "  when  not  more  then  17  per  cent  of  the 
people  were  in  towns  with  the  high  pressure  of  present-day  com- 
mereial  life  and  the  restless,  artificial  and  expensive  habits  of 
society,  and  could  not  fail  to  realize  that  many  occurrences, 
social  and  moral,  such  as  the  irreguhu  habits  of  his  son,  were  the 
logical  and  inevjUble  resulte  of  the  false  standards  which  society 
had  set  up,  and  to  which  the  young  men  and  women  of  today 
in  especially  the  hi^er  circles  were  expected  to  conform.  Not 
only  so,  but  he  also  saw  that  such  were  largely  destructive  of  the 
teaching  and  example  of  personal  effort  through  self-denial, 
which  in  his  boyhood  had  been  constantly  inculcated  as  primary 
requisites  to  success  in  life.  It  became  further  apparent  to  him 
that  the  phenomenal  material  development  of  recent  years  in 
CanMla,  making  in  many  cases  successful  speculation  possible 
for  young  men,  whom  he  knew  to  be  wholly  untrained  in  busi- 
ness methods,  merely  through  taking  the  gambler's  chances  and 
showing  in  their  plunging  foolish  irresponsibility  for  results, 
was  exercisiDg  wide-spread  baneful  and  most  disastrous  effects, 
not  only  ujwn  the  stability  of  business,  but,  iriiat  was  much 
more  important,  also  upon  the  moral  fibre  of  the  whole  people. 

Young  men  whom  he  had  known  a  few  years  before  of  no 
account  or  standug  in  business  circles  were  now  the  moat  prom- 
tr 


tS  The  Illumination  qf  Jonph  KuUr,  Esq. 

inent  in  many  club-circles  and  had  indeed  invaded  and  been 
received  in  social  circles,  hitherto  the  exclusive  preserves  for 
the  traditional  well-bom,  their  sole  title  to  admission  being  the 
fact  they  had  or  seemed  to  have,  made  *coup9*  through  stock 
gambling  or  the  advances  in  real  estate,  such  being  due  on  the 
one  hand  to  normal  commercial  expansion  and  the  rapid  influx 
of  population  to  the  cities  and  on  the  other  to  a  kind  of  adver- 
tising  economically  as  indefensible  as  a  Louisiana  lottery  or  a 
Gowganda  Silver  prospe^-tus. 

The  general  tone  of  society  to  it  all  seemed  indicated  by  its 
laughing  indiffemkce  to  any  criticism  of  the  situation,  when 
everyone  seemed  to  say:  "Why,  if  peo[^e  like  to  be  fooled,  wl^ 
not  fool  them?"  while  the  lawyer  who  had  grown  wealthy 
through  his  conveyancing  and  commissions  and  the  newspaper 
managers  who  had  flourished  through  hi|^y  paid  gambling 
advertisements,  both  nonchalantly  answered  with  the  conical 
legal  quibble  "Caveat  emptor" — "Let  the  buyer  beware,"  as  if 
they  had  successfully  solved  for  themselves  the  most  intricate 
moral  problem  and  done  all  their  duty  as  respectable  members  of 
the  community  and  citizens  of  a  country  which  had  a  right  to  be* 
come  "chesty"  as  being  the  latest  and  last  great  "Bonanza" 
struck  since  California  or  the  Rand. 

But  Joseph  Keeler  was  much  too  practical  a  man  of  the  world 
to  become  embittered  against  a  situation,  which  had  been  in- 
strumental perhaps  in  producing  unfortunate  results  in  his  own 
house,  and  turned  philosophically  to  the  problem  of  what  means 
were  the  most  Ukely  to  improve,  if  not  remove,  conditions  so 
dangerous  to  commercial  and  natural  prosperity  and  so  pro- 
ductive of  social  and  moral  declension. 

What  was  perfectly  apparent  to  him  was  that  the  removal  of 
the  population  of  Canada  from  rural  to  urban  centres,  as  was 
shown  by  the  recent  census,  and  the  enormous  and  dispropor- 
tionate increase  of  the  cities  through  immigration  as  compared 
with  that  in  rural  districts  could  only  have  one  result  so  far  as 
the  production  of  the  food  of  the  people  was  concerned.  Thus 
he  found  the  following: 


Rural  DejnpiUation  and  Urban  Oterpopulatim  M 


41 


1901 


1911 


Increate 


Ptrenri 


Total  population 

of  Canada  ...  .4.371,814  7.«04,8S8  1,888.4«S  S4.1S 
Total  rural 

population 3,349,416        S,9«4,SM  418,878     17.18 

Total  urban 

population «,0«1,799        S,«80,4«        1,248,644    62.24 

These  figures  were  only  emphasized  by  others  giving  yet  more 
details.  Thus  in  Canada  in  1901  there  were  sixty-two  cities  and 
towns  having  a  population  each  over  4,000,  and  only  two  with 
a  population  over  100,000;  while  in  1911  there  were  in  all  200 
urban  municipalities  with  populations  over  2,400.  The  cen- 
tralizing, however,  of  this  population  was  marked  by  Mr.  Keder 
since  he  found  that  of  this  enormous  urban  mcrease,  over  half 
had  been  in  eight  cities  alone,  which  had  grown  from  444,406 
in  1901  to  1,194,274.  Such  figures  were  an  ample  explanation 
to  him  of  the  continued  boom  in  Toronto,  as  in  these  other  towns, 
and  were  eloquent  in  the  information  they  gave,  which  explained 
so  many  of  his  problems.  His  own  city,  indeed,  had  grown 
from  208,040  to  376,438  or  81  per  cent  in  ten  years.  But  this 
was  but  half  the  story,  for  coming  back  to  his  own  problem  Mr. 
Keeler  found  that  rural  Ontario  had  lost  absolutely  42,184  of  her 
population  in  ten  years,  or  such  had  decreased  from  1,246,969  to 
1,194,784.  What,  indeed,  he  had  previously  discovered  re- 
garding his  old  home  of  Northumberiand  was  now  seen  to  be 
simply  a  local  symptom  of  a  general  disease.  What,  when 
analyzed,  made  this  all  the  more  remarkable  was  that  out  of  a 
total  of  1,639,644  immigrants  who  had  entered  Canada  during 
these  ten  years,  of  whom  619,844  had  given  their  vocation  as 
fanners  or  farm  laborers  and  of  whom  120,000  gave  their  des- 
tination as  Ontario,  all  seemed  to  have  gone  to  cities  or  if  to 
rural  districts,  to  have  displaced  a  native  popuhition,  whose 
natural  increase  since  1901  had  wholly  disappeared.  With  the 
enormous  yearly  urban  increase  during  the  decade  confronting 
him,  these  figures  seemed  absurd  and  impossible,  while  the 
industrial  expansion  of  his  own  city  alone  confi.med  the  seeming 
universal  proqierity.    Assuming,  however,  the  truth  of  thew 


M  r*«  /Uumtiurftaii  qf  Jotfli  KitUr,  Etq. 

figures,  Mr.  Keeler  uitiindly  concluded  that  they  would  ihow 
•ome  logic*!  coniequencM  on  •gricuHurml  production  >nd  k 
turned  to  itatiitic*  egnin,  where  he  wu  nirpriwd  to  find  that 
the  average  of  (arm  viluea  (or  Ontario  had  increaaed  but  11.11 
per  acre  (or  all  occuped  land*,  (rom  1906  to  1910,  while  the 
inaeaae  of  land  auetaed  waa  only  481,969  acra  over  M.iM.OOO 
in  1906;  but  that  the  percentage  o(  land  cleared  waa  (lightly  len. 
In  keeping  with  these  figures  he  further  found  that  there  were 
(ewer  cattle,  sheep  and  pigs  in  1909  than  in  190«.    Thus: 

1905  1909 

Itlilchcows 1,106,000  1,07«,000 

Othercattle 1,762,000  1,<9S,000 

Total  slaughtered 714,000  800,000 

Sheep 1,344,000  1,S«0,000 

Sheep  skughtered  or  sold «,S84,000  2,767,000 

Swine 1,906,000  1,M1,000 

Similarly  there  were  decreases  in  acreage  <rf  the  several  grains 
in  the  same  period.    Thus: 

Fall  wheat,  decreased 74,000  acres. 

Spring  wheat,  decreased 21000  acres. 

Barley,  decreased 60,000  acres. 

Oats,  decreased 62,000  acres. 

while  he  found  increases  only  in  the  acreage  oi  com  and  potatoes 
of  70,000  and  U.OOO  acres,  respectively. 

When,  however,  he  found  in  a  study  o(  the  number  o(  bushels 
grown  per  acre,  no  increase,  (all  ^eat  bemg  2.4  bushels  less  in 
1911  than  the  earlier  average  for  five  years,  barley  1.8  less,  oats 
1.6  and  peas  S.S  less  while  the  price  per  bushel  had  increased 
but  little,  relatively,  he  realised  in  this  phenomenon  of  decreased 
production  and  relatively  small  increase  of  prir<«  to  the  farmer, 
a  situation,  bad  as  it  was  in  1806  when  trade  everywhere  both 
in  town  and  country  was  depressed,  which  was  now  aggravated, 
so  far  as  its  effects  upon  farm  values  and  the  tendency  to  leave 
the  (arms  to  crowd  to  the  cities  where  there  was  a  demand  for 
labour  were  concerned,  V  the  increased  cost  of  farm  labour. 

It  was  not  long  before  he  had  the  pro(essor  engaged  in  the 
discussion  o(  these  figures  brought  down  to  the  present  time. 


Sural  Dtpopulaiiim  and  Utba»  OwtrpaimlaHm  81 

Ai  the  profettor  had  not  been  idle  he  wu  equally  prepared  to 
give  hia  theory  o(  the  atuation.    Heiaid: 

"You  know,  Mr.  Keeler,  that  through  the  keen  diacuauon  in 
the  United  Statea,  eepecially  during  the  part  few  yean,  and  more 
recently  in  Germany,  o(  the  problems  of  hi^^  prices  an  agitation 
has  been  raised  producing  the  mart  wide-spread  political  effects. 
The  discussion  has  naturally  been  concerned  with  the  high  cart 
of  living  to  city  dwellers,  and  as  the  Ubouring  classes  have 
witnessed  the  colossal  fortunes  piled  up  through  the  manipula- 
tion of  railway  and  other  industrial  rtocks  and  by  the  combines 
to  increase  prices  in  iron,  cotton,  coal  and  foods,  made  possible 
by  the  facilities  of  personal  communication  by  railway,  tele- 
phone, and  telegraph,  a  deep-seated  sense  of  injustice  through 
labour  not  receiving  its  fair  share  <A  profits  has  arisen,  which, 
if  not  in  some  way  removed,  can  only  end  in  social  revolution. 

"Of  course  strikes  have  followed  strikes  in  every  trade  as  if 
that  would  lessen  the  evil;  but  everywhere  an  increase  of  i  per 
cent  in  wages  is  followed  by  10  per  cent  advance  in  the  cort  of 
food  and  coal.  Strangely,  I  suppose,  because  the  farmer  has 
hitherto  been  too  often  the  silent,  uncomplaining  heart  of  burden, 
an  individualirt  wholly  unorganised  and  unbusinesslike,  his 
voice  has  scarcely  been  heard  or  if  beard  notlieeded  because  he 
showed  no  combined  political  strength.  I  have  been  comparing 
prices  and  find  that  wherever  the  prices  of  the  farmers  have  been 
increased  10  per  crit  the  wholesale  prices  have  risen  by  nearly 
to  per  cent.  Thus  a  table  in  the  Beport  of  the  Department  <rf 
Labour  gives  the  following  prices: 

Averait  of  Prieet  for  1890-1900  Priem  for  1911 

Grain  and  fodder 100  14fi. 

Animals  and  meats 100  140.7 

Dairy  produce 100  ISO. 8 

Ksh 100  14S.e 

Average  total 100  143.74 

"In  all  articles  of  which  a  country  produces  a  notable  surplus, 
the  price  is  regulated  by  the  world's  markets  as  in  the  present 
price  of  wheat;  but  whereas  in  the  United  States  and  Germany, 
and  now  in  Canada,  the  home  consumption  has  approximated 


«  Tin  llhmtmaliim  cf  Jo-pk  KtUr,  £<f . 

the  home  piodiictioB.  tlw  danud,  too  otten  aHutcd  by  oom- 
binatknu  in  almoit  evoy  article  o(  daily  couumption,  at  once 
wtvaocea  the  wholeeile  price*  often  after  the  farmer  hai  lold  hii 
crop  at  an  averafe  price.  For  ioitance,  I  law  the  point  finely 
illuitrated  in  the  paper  of  yesterday.  The  cold  waaon  every- 
where hai  prevented  the  tomato  crap  in  Ontario,  grown  by  the 
(armen  for  the  canneriei  at  a  price  fixed  in  the  aummer  at  SO 
cent*  per  buihel,  from  ripening  weD  and  the  farmen  have  hardly 
got  half  the  number  of  biuhela  per  acre  of  other  yean.  Of 
coune  the  canner  wa*  short,  too;  but  aa  the  lut  year 'a  aupply  waf 
exhausted  the  demand  is  the  same,  ao  the  canners  agreed  to  add 
to  the  price  per  can  an  extra  amount  to  enable  them  to  make  the 
usual  amount  of  money  or  even  an  increase  in  profita,  while  the 
farmer  does  not  get  a  cent  more  per  bushel  than  last  year.  And 
so  it  runs  all  the  way  through  the  stoiy  and,  until  the  farmer 
finds  some  way  of  protecting  himself  or  helping  himself  or  bemg 
helped  by  buaineas  methods  and  capital,  whether  private  or  of 
government,  this  rural  decrease  of  population  through  loss  of 
courage  by  the  fanner  will  and  must  continue. 

"We  have  academic  dissertations  aa  to  the  depreciation  of  the 
gdd  standard  and  too  much  gambling  in  stocks,  all  of  which  is 
true;  but  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  plain,  simple,  econonuc 
causes  affecting  the  farmers'  capacity  to  produce  cheaply  and, 
after  producing,  to  get  a  fair  proportion  of  the  value  of  the 
product,  are  too  often  quite  overlooked  by  the  exponents  of 
political  economy. 

"Just  how  we  are  to  help  in  bringing  about  a  better  situation 
and  enable  the  producer  and  consumer  to  be  in  the  one  case 
assisted  and  in  the  other  relieved  of  the  excessive  burden  of  high 
prices,  I  do  not  wholly  as  yet  perceive;  but  we  shall  not  desist 
unt3  we  have  discovered  a  method.  We  muat  discuss  it  further. 
Good  night!" 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Tm   SnuH   OF   Societt   Fcnctions   Has   UNiointniAn 
Reiclts 

The  earaetttnna  with  which  Mr.  JoKph  K«Ier  had  been 
■tudying  the  several  social  problenu,  along  with  his  (riend  the 
profenor,  during  the  past  months  had  lessened  the  tendency  to 
dwell  upon  thoae  family  matters  which  had  so  urgently  been 
pressed  upon  his  attention.  His  sons  had  returned  from  their 
prolonged  trip  to  the  South,  and  John  seemed  to  have  recovered 
from  the  physical  exhaustion  ai.d  mental  depression,  which  had 
had  such  unfortunate  results.  But  the  lack  of  sufficient  law 
work  gave  him  too  much  time  for  introspection;  while  the  af- 
fronts real  or  imagined,  from  his  former  associates  rankled  his  too 
sensitive  egoism,  the  outcome  proving  that  his  depraved  hab- 
its had  gained  too  strong  a  hold,  in  the  absence  of  any  acute 
sense  of  personal  wrong-doing,  to  enable  him  to  reconstruct  his 
life  and  actions  on  a  higher  pUne.  So  it  was  not  very  long  before 
his  father  came  to  learn  with  grief  that  he  had  a  son  so  lost  to 
self-respect  and  regard  for  the  family  reputation  as  to  appear 
not  infrequently  in  pubUc,  showing  the  traces  of  a  dissipation 
tending  to  become  habitual. 

But  Mr.  Keeler  was  to  suffer  from  the  further  knowledge 
that  his  younger  daughter,  the  light  and  joy  of  Hk  home,  whose 
sunny  disposition  had  so  often  served  to  dissipate  the  clouds 
gsthning  over  the  family  circle,  was  toward  the  end  of  a  winter 
of  gaiety  showing  evidences  of  some  maUdy,  which  her  by  no 
means  rugged  constitution  was  not  readily  throwing  o6f.  A 
ali^t  cough  had  succeeded  a  seemingly  simple  cold,  which  when 
her  father  suggested  fewer  parties  and  more  sleep  she  made 
li^t  of  as  being  nothing  at  all.  When  her  mother  was  appealed 
to,  she  too  did  not  think  it  anything  serious;  but  certainly 
thought  that  a  few  weeks  at  AtUntic  City  would  be  a  good  thing. 
Of  course  this  suggestion  was  at  once  acceded  to,  so  that  mother 
and  daughter  had  gone  away  to  the  seaside,  where,  after  • 
S3 


64 


Tlu  lUummaiioH  qf  Joseph  Knier,  Eti. 


•hort  pniod  of  ra*t  uul  regulw  bout*  with  outingi  <><■  *^  brotd 
ptomenwiM,  which  gave  the  young  lady  «  ledinx  of  being  quite 
well  again,  tlie  mother  yieldMl  readily  to  Fanny'i  ineiiMitioni 
and  both  were  Mon  involved  in  the  locial  whirl  at  the  (aihiooable 
watering-place. 

In  a  few  weeki  they  had  returned  home  with  Fanny  looking 
bfowned  by  the  iun  and  lea  bireiea,  and  w  matter*  flowed  along 
much  ai  uaual  in  the  home.  But  it  waa  uon  noted  by  the  father 
that  hia  daughter  waa  often  pale  and  liitteii  in  the  morning 
with  a  poor  and  taitidioui  appetite,  while  (bowing  in  the  after- 
noon a  fluahed  cheek,  often  aaiociated  with  an  unnatural  bril- 
liance and  unuaual  excitability,  both  of  which  railed  hia  graveat 
apprahenaioni.  Hu  wife,  however,  quieted  hit  fears  with  the 
promiae  "that  a  lummer  ipent  at  their  Muakoka  home  would 
bring  Fanny  home  bright  and  itiong  again." 

The  lummer  came  and  went,  the  daughter  coming  home  aeem- 
ingly  better,  while  the  eldeit  aon,  who  had  spent  moat  of  these 
months  at  the  cottage,  returned  with  them,  greatly  improved 
in  his  general  tone.  So  every  thing  pointed  to  the  home  return- 
ing to  its  old-time  happy  routine.  Mr.  Joseph  Keeler,  as  home 
affairs  became  leas  engrossing,  reverted  naturally  to  those  eco- 
nomic studies,  which  seemed  now  all  the  more  important  as  he 
saw  their  relationship  to  moral  and  social  questions,  affecting 
even  himself  and  family.  U  waa  just  at  this  moment  that  the 
question  of  his  youngest  son's  future  became  a  factor  in  the 
problem.  Ernest  had  shown  no  inclination  for  the  work  in  his 
father's  warehouse,  and,  indeed,  for  a  whole  year  had  been  doing 
little  more  than  making  a  desultory  acquaintance  with  office 
methods,  which  from  the  6rst  he  had  found  irksome.  His  love 
of  outdoor  life  often  found  him  riding  in  the  countryside  far 
beyond  the  city  limits,  thereby  recalling  the  two  happy  days 
spent  with  his  father  on  the  Lake  shore  at  Brighton  at  the  sea- 
son when  the  hillsides  were  white  with  apple-blossoms  set  in 
their  verdured  background,  all  reflected  in  the  glistening  sun- 
shine of  those  fair  May  days  down  on  Presqu*  Isle  Bay. 

His  sometimes  laughing  suggestion  that  he  ou^t  to  he  a 
farmer  had  been  made  more  than  once,  and  had  again  and  again 
recurred  to  his  father.  So  when,  on  the  boy's  return  from  a  few 
days  spent  with  an  old  school  chum  in  the  Niagara  Fruit  Dis- 


Tht  Sinu  of  fiinttt  Fundmu  U 

trict.  he  benme  enUiuaUwtic  »t  the  dinner  taUe  in  dc«!ribin« 
the  glorioiH  tiicei  they  had  hid  in  the  country.  Mr.  Keeler  uid ; 

"Emeet,  how  «-ould  you  like  to  be  •  fruit  {inner  doim  nt 
Briffatonr" 

To  which  the  lul  replied: 

"Juit  try  me,  air,  and  tee!    It  would  be  iplendid!" 

Of  coune  the  mother  did  not  take  the  boy  wrknuly,  ai  tha 
could  not  compreliend  how  anyone,  city  bred,  could  endure  the 
inanity  of  an  exiitence  leparated  from  tlie  daily  exritement  of 
urban  life  and  of  the  couitant  round  of  gaieties  li  v'.irh  much 
of  her  later  years  had  been  spent.    So  all  she  en ulu  *  v  was: 

"You  silly  boy,  you  don't  know  what  you  »r-  tulkii,i<  aboui. 
You  would  make  a  pretty  fanner!" 

To  this  Mr.  Keeler  only  thought  it  necei  •  v  to  icn..i.k: 

"Well,  Ernest,  we  must  see  about  the  i  .'ler,'  ai  <l  «•  .01 
a  time  the  matter  rested  there. 

What,  however,  seemed  apparent  to  Mt  Xcrlci,  il  <•  mori'  iic 
revolved  in  his  mind  tiiu  rural  problem  n«.»w  con^'n^'  \o  hr.ve  a 
family  and  personal  interest  as  he  thought  of  „ivin';  v.r.  b«; '» 
evident  inclination  an  opportunity  for  developi.irnt.  -Mf,  ilnt 
if  enough  land  within  the  Brighton  district  could  !>'  i»i  .^'ht  at 
a  fair  price,  it  might  be  possible  to  put  into  effect  some  of  those 
theories,  which  he  and  tlie  professor  had  been  di«^M»fing  to 
recently. 

Not  only,  he  thought,  should  capital  properly  invested  and 
applied  be  made  productive  as  in  any  wholesale,  manufactur- 
ing or  other  industry,  but  there  further  seemed  no  reasons  why 
the  methods  of  concentrating  business  and  of  cooperation  be- 
tween tlie  new  business  farmer  and  the  old  individualistic 
settler,  who  for  so  many  generations  had  toiled  patiently  alone, 
should  not  be  brought  into  effect. 

It  was  not  long  before  he  had,  through  the  local  enquiries  of 
an  agent,  obtained  the  prices  of  a  number  of  farms  for  sale  near 
Brighton,  and,  though  prepared  for  it  somewhat,  was  much 
surprised,  indeed,  at  the  low  prices  asked.  It  seemed  to  him 
absurd  that  a  few  lots  in  a  field  more  than  five  miles  from  the 
centre  of  Toronto  should  have  a  selling  price  greater  than  a 
hundred-acre  farm,  with  buildings,  orchard  and  all  near  Brigh- 
ton.   In  some  cases  he  learned  of  farms,  where  no  sons  were 


66  The  lUuminaHon  qf  Joaepk  Keder^  Eag. 

left  to  till  them,  and  of  others  ^ere  fathers  and  husbands  had 
died  and  only  women  were  left  to  manage  them.  So  many  in* 
staucea  of  this  nature  were  related  that  Mr.  I^eler  enquired 
still  further  as  to  the  conditions.  He  found  that  while  farms 
would  vary  in  the  percentage  of  readily  tillable  soil,  yet  it  was 
plain  that  most  farms  were  but  partially  cultivated.  Not  only 
was  this  the  case,  but  the  character  of  the  cultivation  was  fur- 
ther quite  limited.  Relatively  few  cattle  were  found  in  the  dis- 
trict, uptat  from  a  certain  number  pf  cows  on  each  farm  to 
supply  milk  to  the  local  cheese  factory,  the  number  decreasing 
rather  than  increasing  in  recent  years;  while  these  farmers 
seemed  never  to  have  learned  the  art  of  feeding  fat  cattle  or 
else  had  ceased  doing  so  as  being  unprofitable.  So  the  growing 
of  h^  and  oats  mostly  for  the  cows  and  working  horses,  and 
the  cultivating  of  tomatoes  and  peas  for  the  canneries,  seemed 
to  be  the  chief  methods  pursued. 

The  chief  feature  of  interest,  however,  was  the  apple  or- 
chards; but  there  were  even  in  this  fruit-growing  business  de- 
ments which  did  not  seem  satisfactory.  He  noted  that  the 
census  showed  fewer  fruit  trees  in  some  counties  of  Ontario 
in  1010  than  in  1900,  while  he  found  that  the  local  practice  of 
many  years  still  prevailed  of  the  apple-buyer  of  the  neighbor- 
ing town  coming  during  the  late  summer  and  bai^ning  for 
the  apple  crop,  at  the  same  price  per  barrel  as  bru^  been  paid 
twenty  years  before. 

**No  wonder  then,"  sud  Mr.  Keeler  to  himself,  *'if  the  wages 
paid  and  the  cost  of  living  are  higher  to  the  farmer,  and  prices  not 
much  increased,  that  he  should  have  grown  weary  and  either 
retired  to  the  neighboring  village,  renting  his  farm  which  he 
could  not  sell,  or  continued  on  the  farm  a  mere  vegetative  exis- 
tence, not  doing  much  and  not  getting  much,  not  laying  mudi 
out  and  not  incurring  any  serious  expenditure  or  responsibility." 

Before  going  further  into  the  matter.  Mr.  Keeler  invited 
the  professor  to  spend  another  evening  with  him.  The  results 
of  their  discoveries  were  pregnant  wilii  many  altered  views  <rf 
life  in  the  various  members  of  the  Keeler  family. 


CHAPTER  XV 

The  Probleh  of  Hiqh  Pbicxs  Analtzbd 

When  Mr.  Keeler  and  the  pnfeasor  bad  once  more  nettled 
into  their  uiunl  comers  in  the  library,  the  former  briefly  re- 
hearaed  the  several  incidents  related  in  the  last  chapter  and  told 
of  the  enquiries  he  had  been  making  regarding  present  farming 
conditions  and  what  the  results  were.    He  said : 

"  What  do  you  find  elsewhere,  professor,  in  either  your  travels 
or  reading?  Are  rural  conditions  what  I  find  them  here?  Is 
there  everywhere  in  old  communities  in  Great  Britain  and  on 
the  Continent  this  same  inertia,  bred  of  an  environment  seem- 
ingly incapable  of  being  overcome,  altered,  or  ameliorated? 
Just  imagine  my  bemg  offered  farms  at  prices  not  much  greater, 
right  along  the  Lake  Shore  and  railways,  than  asked  for  wild 
prairie  land  thirty  miles  away  from  the  nearest  raihnad  in  cen- 
tral Saskatchewan! " 

The  professor  replied: 

"Unfortunately  these  very  conditions  have  existed  and  even 
yet  exist  in  some  old  English  and  Scottish  counties;  while  Ger- 
many and  France  receive  annual  migrations  of  Russians  and 
Poles,  either  for  the  harvest  time  or  as  permanent  settlers  on 
account  of  the  exodus  mto  the  cities  m  recent  years,  notably 
in  Germany.  Nowhere  does  the  ideal  condition  exist  of  a 
baUnce  between  country  and  city  equal  to  that  in  Denmark, 
where  there  are  about  1,000,000  people  in  the  cities  and  1,400,- 
000  in  the  country  and  where  several  ministers  of  the  Crown 
are  simple  peasant  farmers. 

"I  assure  you  that  sfaice  you  have  brought  all  these  matters 
home  to  me  as  a  local  Ontario  problem,  I  have  felt  that  some  of 
my  early  generalisations  on  the  subject  seem  to  me  now  rather 
academic  than  practical." 

"But,  professor,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "if  the  Danes  in  a  country 
surrounded  by  the  ocean  can  solve  the  rural  problem,  surely 
inasmuch  as  they  are  or  ought  to  be  affected  by  the  same  world- 

67 


08  The  lUummation  of  Jouph  Ketler,  Etq. 

wide  influencea  u  their  neighboun  others  can  do  the  aame. 
Wherein  aeem  to  rest  the  eaaential  differences  in  results?  " 

"Well,  "  replied  the  professor,  "you  must  know,  Mr.  Keeler, 
I  have  in  my  summer  vacations  visited  the  several  countries 
of  Northern  Europe  especially,  and  what  I  have  noted,  most  of 
all  perhaps  in  the  Scandinavian  countries,  is  that  which  Caesar 
noted  and  what  Tacitus  writes  about  regarding  the  Teutonic 
peoples,  a  simplicity  of  life,  associated  with  the  traditional  love 
for  the  customs  and  practices  and  occupations,  which  for  many 
centuries  have  marked  every  hamlet  in  these  countries.  Ger* 
many  since  Bismarck's  policy  of  industrialism,  basedupondirect- 
ing  the  energies  of  twenty-one  universities  into  research  work 
and  a  high  protective  tariff  for  the  products  of  industry,  as  well 
as  on  home-grown  food,  has  made  enormous  strides  in  organiz- 
ing her  people  until  the  problem,  is  now  one  of  feeding  the  towns- 
people without  bringing  in  food  from  other  countries,  while  the 
stimulus  to  become  industrial  has  become  so  great  that  rural 
development  has  proportionately  very  notably  lessened. 

"Sweden  like  Germany  has  advanced  industrially  very  no- 
tably in  forty  years,  but  there  as  in  Denmark,  a  much  nearer 
balance  between  country  and  city  exists,  because  the  govern- 
ment systematically  develops  ru-al  needs  as  an  industrial  neces- 
sity. Although  only  12  per  cent  of  Sweden  is  cultivated,  and 
emigration  was  for  thirty  years  very  large  to  the  United  States, 
yet  the  great  water  powers  being  utilized  are  greatly  develop- 
ing industries,  and  farming  is  rapidly  becoming  industrialised. 
The  wide  areas  of  rocky  hillsides  are  being  made  to  grow  much 
more  stock  and  the  forests  have  been,  and  are  being,  system- 
atically cultivated  for  business  profits.  Dairying,  as  in  Den- 
mark, is  closely  associated  with  sugar-beet  growing  on  the  same 
pUn.  Everywhere  is  being  clearly  comprehended  the  conver- 
sion by  the  producer  of  his  own  raw  materials  into  the  manu- 
factured product.  Some  93  per  cent  of  all  the  rural  population 
has  only  4  acres,  66  per  cent  from  4  to  40  acres  and  the  balance 
80  to  200  acres. 

"This  ideal  has  as  yet  been  realized  only  in  Denmark,  where 
with  a  population  less  than  Ontario,  she  had  three  years  ago 
1,358  butter  factories,  almost  every  one  of  which  had  ice  or 
mechanical  refrigeration  to  care  for  their  milk  and  butter.    Of 


The  Problem  qf  Hifk  Prieei  AtuUfsed  69 

the  ktter  there  were  141,  which  handle  enonnous  quantities  of 
milk  daily,  while  there  are  besides  several  thousand  small  slaugh- 
ter houses,  some  TO  large  abattoirs  with  all  modem  equipments, 
tfeir  competition  preventing  combines." 

"So  everywhere  then,  professor,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "there 
seem  to  be  associated  the  two  ^'roblems,  first  scientific  methods 
applied  to  farming,  and  second,  the  associating  of  a  group  of 
farmers,  as  with  the  cheese  factories  here,  if  not  to  produce, 
at  least  to  buy  and  sell  through  coliperating."  "Exactly  so," 
said  the  professor.  "  But," said  Mr.  Keeler,  "isthere  no  otherdif- 
ference,  for  if  this  is  so  easy,  it  is  very  strange  that  our  farmers 
have  not  done  this  aheady?"  "  Well,"  said  the  profesaor,"it  does 
seem  very  strange  and  I  am  free  to  confess  that  it  is  a  problem 
which  you  probably  can  get  nearer  to  the  solution  of  than  my- 
self. Perhaps  there  is  something  different  in  the  fundamental 
basis  of  education  on  thii  v.y>stem  Continent.  For  instance, 
if  the  population  of  Ontario  is  half  rural  and  half  urban,  there 
ou^t  to  be  at  the  fanners'  superior  colleges  and  schools  as  many 
students  as  at  the  universities,  which  lead  to  professions.  Now 
I  recall  the  fact  that  the  Guelph  Agricultural  College  has  stu- 
dents of  the  regular  class,  numbering  only  some  600,  while 
Toronto  University  has  alone  some  4,000  non-agricid'^ural 
students.  The  other  universities  in  Ontario  really  have  no 
agricultural  course  at  all.  As  regards  the  primary  schools,  I 
remember  a  short  address  recently  made  by  the  head  of  one 
of  our  Normal  Schools  on  this  very  point.  He  said,  'The  pres- 
ent courses  of  study  for  rural  schools  are  made  by  city  men, 
text-books  are  written  by  city  men,  and  the  teachers  of  the 
normal  schools  live  and  teach  with  city  ideals.'  He  pomted  out, 
that,  when  science  is  really  applied  to  agriculture,  it  will  mean 
that  each  farm  will  grow  ten  times  its  present  amount  and  sup- 
port ten  times  as  many  people.  He  further  indicated  that  proper 
teadung  must  begin  through  rural  teachers  who  know  how 
to  teach  the  most  valuable  parts  first,  so  that  the  country  child 
should  learn  and  do  those  things  at  school,  which  are  a  part  of 
his  preparation  for  his  future  life  work.  This  would  mean  a 
normal  school  with  its  experimental  farm,  where  many  lessons  of 
the  course  are  taught  in  the  gardens  and  orchards,  and  it  also 
means  a  country  school  with  its  adjoining  farm  supervised  by 


TO  The  Ittuntinatim  of  Joteph  Ketkr,  Etq. 

the  school  principal,  where  education  will  be  by  illustration 
and  experiment  in  farming,  horticulture  and  home  making. 

"When  so  prominent  an  educationist  sees  this,  brou^t  up 
as  he  was  on  an  Ontario  farm,  I  fancy  he  really  has  put  his  finger 
on  the  primary  cause  of  our  present  evils.  I  know  we  have  not 
yet  begun  to  approach  the  practical  methods  of  Denmark  in 
this  matter.'* 

"  All  this  is,  no  doubt,  very  good,"  said  Mr.  Keeler, "  but  from 
my  enquiries  there  seem  other  phases  of  the  situation  demand- 
ing the  most  serious  attention,  for  it  must  be  years  for  the  re- 
sulU  of  such  education  of  the  children  to  have  practical  results. 
Have  you  in  your  studies  ev>:r  come  across  the  details  of  any 
method  by  which  the  farmers  can  unite  to  obtain  the  full  results 
of  their  labours?" 

"Oh,  yes,"  sud  the  professor,  "1  have  noticed  in  a  very  re- 
cent pamphlet  from  England  how,  in  a  single  district,  three 
southern  counties  have  what  is  called  an  Agricultural  Organi- 
zation Society.  Its  aims  are  to  advocate  the  principles  of 
coSperation.  Belonging  to  the  General  Association  are  local 
societies,  whose  objects  are  (a)  to  purchase  seeds,  implements, 
manures  and  so  on,  (b)  to  secure  the  best  market  for  the  sale 
of  produce,  and  (c)  to  establish  credit  societies.  These  methods 
are  the  same  as  those  existing  in  Denmark  and  other  continental 
countries;  but  in  several  of  those  countries  legislation  exists 
enabling  governments  to  loan  money  at  low  rates  of  interest 
to  such  societies." 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "this  is  just  such  a  scheme  as  I 
believe  is  necessary  if  we  are  to  encourage  the  farmers  of  On- 
tario to  underUke  production  on  a  large  scale  with  improved 
methods.  Of  course  private  capital  from  the  cities  may  equally 
well  be  utilised  to  assist  in  such  work;  but  there  is  every  reason 
why  both  means  should  be  adopted.  It  is  a  remarkable  illus- 
tration of  how  slow  Canadians  have  been  to  realise  that  the 
company  methods,  which  are  everywhere  in  operation  in  manu- 
factures, in  mining,  in  lumbering,  and  so  on  should  almost  no- 
where, at  least  in  the  East,  exist  with  regard  to  agriculture.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  the  fanner  through  his  isolation  and 
his  individualism  is  not,  in  the  ordinary  sense,  a  business  man. 
His  interests  have  not  really  been  considered  as  one  with  the 


ill 


The  Problem  of  High  Priee§  Analyud 


71 


business  interests  of  his  neighbouring  town,  and,  indeed,  the 
people  of  the  tx)wn,  always  small  traders^  have  too  often  looked 
upon  the  farmer  as  the  man  out  of  whom  to  make  all  they  can, 
taking  advantage  of  their  position  at  every  point. 

"  I  can  see  every  reason  why  municipal  councils  should  be  a 
medium  through  which  county  associations  could  be  assisted 
in  financing  a  number  of  such  local  societies  through  supplying 
printed  forms  supplied  by  the  Provincial  Secretary's  Deport- 
ment for  insuring  proper  organization,  reporting  as  to  the  good 
standing  of  members  and  guaranteeing  that  loans  would  be 
properly  secured,  as  are  our  drainage  debentures  under  the 
Ontario  Drainage  Act  in  some  of  the  western  counties  of  the 
province.  ^^Tiat  the  ordinary  farmer  needs,  above  everything 
else,  is  encouragement  to  make  improvements,  which  by  making 
his  labour  more  effective  will  ensure  better  returns." 

"  Yes,"  said  the  prof^sor,  "this  is  exactly  the  point,  or  as  one 
of  our  acute  economists  expresses  it,  '  Increased  economy  really 
means  the  more  effective  use  of  loanable  capital';  personal 
efficiency  rather  than  a  growth  of  population  may  be  the  great 
force  in  increasing  wealth,  and  with  the  uplift  of  the  personality 
of  those  using  capital,  as  in  this  case  of  the  farmer,  comes  a 
better  social  spirit,  and  the  replacing  of  competition  by  coopera- 
tion. Thus  it  becomes  easier  to  get  groups  of  producers  to 
combine  to  prevent  waste  and.  when  they  combine,  the  main- 
tenance of  fixed  prices  just  as  bank  interest  becomes  readily 
assured." 

"That  is  perfectly  splendid,  professor,"  said  Mr.  Keeler. 
"and  sums  up  the  whole  matter  exnctly.  As  I  see  it  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  resolves  itself  into  three  factors  as  does  any 
other  of  my  business  problems :  primarily,  it  means  economy  in 
the  production  of  farm  products,  as  in  my  factory  it  means 
enou^  machines  and  enough  intelligent  labor  to  operate  them 
and  the  best  of  materials  to  work  with,  which  means  seed,  soil 
and  climate.  It  must  mean,  next,  that  what  is  produced  must 
be  of  the  highest  quality  pc»sible,  lie  harvested  and  preserved 
in  the  best  manner  possible  until  put  in  the  hands  of  the  con- 
sumer; and,  lastly,  it  means  that  no  undue  costs  be  levied  upon 
any  product  by  either  local  buyers,  transportation  companies 
or  commission  men.     I  might  give  you  a  whole  sermon  on  these 


7« 


The  lUuminaiian  of  Joseph  KeeUr,  Eaq. 


Utter  points;  but  you  know  them  all,  since  as  one  of  your  pro- 
fessors in  the  University  has  recently  stated  in  a  report  regard- 
ing hi^  prices,  "The  tax  on  imports  of  food  is  a  primary  cause  in 
prices  being  higher  here  in  Canada  than  in  Sweden.  Intended 
to  protect  the  Canadian  farmer,  the  development  of  canning 
and  packing  factones  has  made  it  posuble  for  a  group  (rf  men  to 
oitirely  control  the  prices  at  which  our  fanners  must  sell  their 
products — nearly  all  possible  buyers  being  in  the  group — and 
also  to  nuuntain  the  price  at  which  the  consumer  must  bi^  the 
same  products  up  to  the  level  of  the  foreign  price  plus  freight 
and  plus  duty. ' 

"  I  have  not  said  anythiug  to  you,  professor,  about  my  Ernest ; 
but  I  believe  I  shall  be  doing  a  wise  thing  in  at  any  rate  the  lad's 
interest  in  buying  a  farm  and  in  attempting  to  cultivate  a  spirit 
of  mutual  help  and  understanding  between  myself  and  neigh- 
bours in  the  country  with  a  view  to  cotfpnation,  and  tiie  boy  will 
gradually  get  fitted  into  his  place  vad  work,  if  he  takes  the  matter 
seriously,  while  spending  his  winters  at  the  Godfih  College, 
getting  the  scientific  knowledge  along  with  the  peftetical.  In- 
deed, professor,  I  think  some  of  the  blood  of  my  raral  ancestry 
must  be  warming  up.  for  I  am  strangely  attnKted  to  this 
problem,  and  you  may  expect  shortly  to  see  me  a  k>rd  of  a  few 
cheap  acres.  It  does  seem  very  ridiculous  that  all  which  we  in 
Canada  hear  about  the  landed  gentry  of  England  and  Germany 
should  fill  us  with  visions  of  ancient  country  seats  set  in  splendid 
parks,  surrotraded  with  a  happy  rural  tenantry,  while  we  in 
Canada  see  on  every  side  our  city  merchants  imagining  that 
they  are  the  only  aristocracy,  while  the  fiumers  are  really 
classed  with  our  wage-earning  warehouse  men.  It  looks  as  if  it 
is  all  a  difference  (rf  opportunity  and  I  would  dearly  like  to  see 
the  farmer  given  one  chance,  for  I  cannot  believe  that  the  ^irit 
has  wholly  gone  out  of  that  old  life  down  by  the  Bay,  when  my 
grandmother  reverting  to  the  early  doings  always  used  to  say, 
"Those  were  halcyon  days.'" 


mW 


CHAPTER  XVI 
Mr.  Joseph  Keeler  Tcbnr  Faruer 


Mr.  Keeler  was  now  still  more  enthiuiastic  than  ever  in  his 
determination  to  develop  the  (arming  scheme  in  his  home  coun- 
ty, so  it  was  not  long  before  he  was  again  visiting  Brighton 
with  his  son,  Ernest,  to  examine  closely  some  of  the  farms 
on  which  his  agent  had  obtained  options.  He  wa.s  not  long  in 
selecting  an  old  place  situated  on  the  Lake  Shore  with  the  rail- 
way crossing  it.  There  was  an  old-time  semi-colonial  house, 
built  ninety  years  ago  by  the  first  grantee  from  the  Crown,  an 
old  ex-captain  of  Commander  Yeo's  fleet  on  Lake  Ontario  in 
the  War  of  1812.  Like  all  of  his  profession  the  old  captain  had 
believed  in  good  cheer  and  from  cellar  to  attic,  cupboards  and 
storerooms  all  told  of  the  days  when  the  "home-brewed"  was 
of  the  best  and  abundant.  Situated  west  of  the  town,  the  old 
farmhouse  looked  out  over  the  waters  toward  Bald  Bluff  with 
Presqu'Isle  to  the  east  and  Colbome  Pier  to  the  west,  and  ever 
gave  to  the  ^^ew  the  wide  »»  eep  of  the  lake,  whose  roar  was 
heard  from  beyond  the  cedar  grove  on  the  shingly  beach.  The 
farm  had  beea  well  cared  for,  though  never  greatly  developed, 
there  being  .•Kil  remaining  a  large  wood-lot  of  a  hundred  acres, 
whose  first  pine  had  been  cut  in  the  fifties,  but  now  bore  a  fine 
growing  forest  of  second-growth  pine  with  beech  and  maple, 
birch  and  cedar.  This,  with  a  splendid  spring  creek  coming  from 
the  ravine  in  the  escarpment  to  the  north  aud  wandering  over 
its  gravel  bed  through  the  cedar  bottom  and  pasture  fields  to 
the  lake,  made  the  farm  very  attractive,  so  Mr.  Keeler  promptly 
closed  the  offer,  at  what  he  looked  upon  as  a  very  hiw  price,  from 
the  dear  old  lady  whose  whole  married  and  widowed  life  of 
nearly  sixty  yean  had  been  spent  there,  and  she  and  her  re- 
maining daughter  left  it  only  because  of  their  inability  to  manage 
it  advantageously.  The  pasturage  in  the  creek  bottom  was 
excellent  and  the  soil  gave  promise,  with  its  .several  old  and 
young  orchards,  of  supplying  the  very  essentials  which  Joseph 


M 


Tlu  lUuminatim  of  Jotpk  K—Ur,  Etq. 


Keeler  imagmed  would  ntiify  hii  boy'i  deain*  and  give  him- 
tett  the  niipoitunity  tt  puttmg  into  pnwtkc  the  |duu  which  he 
wu  nutu  ing  lor  «u  honourable  occupation  lor  hit  ion.  See- 
ing *  favounble  opportunity  at  handling  the  place  by  wcuring 
the  lervices  of  a  young  farmer,  he  purchaied  the  adjoining  farm, 
and  the  ion  of  its  former  owner  agreed  to  take  charge  on  the 
baaia  of  "share  and  ibare"  alilce  in  the  products,  Mr.  Keeler 
reaer\-ing  the  forest  land  and  orchards  with  other  land  for  sepa- 
rate development. 

With  his  business  fore  i>:  t,  Mr.  Keeler  had  no  idea  of  rush- 
ing into  any  hvge  en  "  iitures  until  experience  had  taught 
Um  the  best  method'  ■;'  oiocedure.  As  it  became  known  to 
the  neighbors  that  a  ,  ircomer  from  the  city  had  purchased 
land,  they  became  immediately  interested  and  awaited  with 
much  curiosity  what  their  new  neighbour  might  be  going  to  do. 
Mr.  Keeler  casualty  met  with  one  and  another  of  these;  he 
fouBd  them  intelUgent  within  the  limits  of  their  old-time  ex- 
perience, and  when  he  told  them  he  hoped  they  might  work 
togtther  to  develop  the  district,  he  was  met  with  frifHMlly  assur- 
ances of  goodwill  and  assistance.  He  further  soon  found  that, 
for  the  verj'  reasons  which  the  professor  and  himself  had  \rorked 
out,  these  farmers  had  been  following  for  years  along  these 
narrow  lines  of  cultivation  which  brought  them  an  easy  sub- 
sistence, such  as  keeping  cows  for  supplying  the  cheese  factor> . 
caring  fairly  for  their  old  orchards  and  growing  tomatoes  and 
other  vegetables  for  the  canneries,  receiving  much  the  same 
returns  as  they  had  twenty  years  befoee.  He  leaned  that  the 
prices  were  not  such  as  to  enable  them  to  employ  sufficient 
labour  for  devela^HKat,  while  largely  for  just  such  reasons 
the  sons  of  the  fsem  had  year  after  year  gone  into  town,  where 
they  could  receive  ready  money  or  to  the  West  to  take  up  ne^- 
prairie  farms.  When  asked  why  they  had  not  combined  to  sell 
their  produce  in  Wholesale  lots,  they  could  only  reply  by  saying 
"they  hardly  knew,"  but  all  felt  that  some  such  scheme  would 
pay  if  it  could  be  worked  out.  Mr.  Keeler  recognized  now  at 
first  hand  how  the  lack  of  business  methods  and  the  absence  of 
anyone  to  take  the  initiative  accounted  for  what  seemed  to  be 
a  lack  of  energy  and  even  a  seeming  hopelessness  of  any  possible 
improvement  in  their  conditions;  and  he  determined  that,  his 


Mr,  Jotfk  KmUt  Ttmu  Farmer 


n 


..II 


time  and  opportunitin  peraiitting,  be  would  tiy  and  develop 
in  the  county  lome  of  the  simple  methodi  under  which  his 
daily  bunneu  operations  in  the  city  were  carried  on.  He  fitted 
up  the  old  house  comfortably  tor  Ernest  and  soon  had  installed 
an  experienced  Scotchman,  with  bis  wife  and  young  family  to 
take  charge  of  the  young  orchards,  grow  special  stuff  for  the 
canneries  and  gradually  evolve  some  new  features  cf  cultiva- 
tion, which  it  seemed  to  him  should  be  successful. 

Mr.  Keeler,  so  interested  had  he  become,  determined  to  have 
the  house  "open"  for  the  summer  months  and  to  spend  at  least 
his  week-ends  in  seeing  matters  develop.  During  his  repeated 
visits,  he  found  that  the  neighbours  were  discussing  more  seri- 
ously some  of  the  methods  of  cooperation,  one  ol  which  had  been 
emjUo^-ed  successful,  at  the  cheese  factory  for  years,  and, 
through  the  young  acquaintances  which  Ernest's  jolly  ways 
had  so  ea^  made,  Mr.  Keeler  was  not  long  in  getting  them 
organised  into  an  association  for  mutual  assistance  in  buying 
artiik'ial  manures,  spraying  materials  for  the  curchards,  and  for 
picking,  packing  and  marketing  apples  and  other  products. 
At  his  invitation  a  meeting  was  held  in  the  old  house  and  he  was 
not  a  little  surprised  to  find  displayed  an  amount  of  accurate 
{tactical  knowledge  which  ser\'ed  to  assure  him  that  with  busi- 
ness methods  in  buying  and  sellings  very  satisfactor>-  results 
were  not  only  possible  but  even  certain. 

So  the  season  advanced  from  the  early  spring  into  the  long 
summer  days  and  these  found  Mr.  Keeler  escorting  Fanny  and 
his  eldest  son  do\sii  to  the  "Farm,"  himself  delighted  with  the 
prtispect  of  a  iio\'el  experience  and  the  growing  hope  that  hia 
daughter  might  there  regain  her  (4d-time  health  and  q>irits 
and  that  his  eldest  son  might  obtain  a  wholesomer  view  of  life. 
It  had  been  only  the  failure  of  her  son  to  t^iow  off  his  <fisBipated 
habits,  which  had  injured  her  vanity,  and  her  saziety  regard- 
ing Fanny's  continued  delicate  health  iHiicfa  had  haK-ref*onciled 
Madam  Keeler  to  the  absurdity  of  her  husband's  farmif^  fad, 
and  his  encouraging  Ernest  to  exile  Jumsetf  m  the  dreary 
country.  She  knew  that  "it  was  all  foKy  and  that  both  would 
tire  of  it;  but  si^posed  there  could  come  so  harm  from  that 
trying  it  for  a  summer  it  they  chose.  She  and  Mami  would  gt 
to  Mudu^a  cottage." 


W  Tht  /{mitnatim  t^  Jo—pk  KttUr,  Etq. 

It  could  not  be  Mid  thst  John  Keder  at  fint  reluhed  b«n- 
UuncDt  from  hi*  chy  haunt*;  but  he  wae  not  to  far  loet  to 
■eU-iopect  or  mentaUjr  etniig  enough  to  miit  hii  father's 
■ugfeetioDi  niiich  amounted  to  a  command,  that  he  go  down 
with  Fanrjr  and  make  Emeit'i  flnt  tummer  a  pleaiant  one 
on  the  "Farm."  Thoroughly  practical,  Vb.  Keeier  knew  that 
John  muit  be  occulted, »  only  aeemed  •urprised  when  Tom  one 
Saturday  evening  came  ipeeding  up  the  creek  in  a  well-fur- 
niahed  motor-boat,  which  he  had  rtm  down  in  from  Toronto 
and  which  he  told  John  he  had  brought  ao  that  he  might  keep 
Fanny  out  all  the  pleasant  days  on  the  water  of  the  Bay  and 
bring  back  the  color  to  her  cheeks. 

So  it  was  not  long  before  the  change  of  scene,  constant  occu- 
pation, with  life  in  the  open,  motoring,  fishing,  and  resting  and 
dreaming  were  not  only  doing  marvels  for  Fanny,  but  were  also 
exerting  their  soothing,  healing  effects  upon  the  prodigal  son, 
to  whom  came  gradually  some  idea  of  his  hitherto  misspent 
life,  some  sense  of  personal  unworthiness  and,  with  steadied 
nerves,  a  growing  determination  to  reform  his  ideas  and  habits 
of  life.  To  Fanny  the  days  proved  one  long  summer  dream. 
Coming  in  from  a  long  ride  in  the  sheltered  cabin  of  the  motor 
boat,  the  delicate  girl  would  go  rested,  though  weary,  to  her 
open  tent  pitched  amid  the  cedars,  which,  grouped  in  little 
clumps  upon  the  warm  light  soil  of  the  pasture  field  looking 
over  the  beach,  gave  to  the  soft  moist  lepl^TS  from  the  lake  the 
balsamic  odours  from  their  sighing  bou^.  Then  after  an  ap- 
petite, long  absent,  had  been  appeased  with  a  cream  and  egg 
collation  she  would  sleep,  fanned  by  the  summer  breeie,  and  in 
the  cooler  evenings  enjoy  the  campfire  parties,  which  the  others 
of  the  household  had  come  to  make  on  the  gravel  beach.  Fanny 
soon  came  to  so  love  the  spot,  that  first  in  the  hot  evenings,  and 
then  gradually  until  every  night  she  made  the  tent  her  habita- 
tion and,  wrapped  in  warm  rugs,  would  enjoy  unbroken  slum- 
bers soothed  by  the  ceoeucc-^  of  the  waves  lapping  on  the  pebbled 
shore.  As  her  strength  d<  finitely  increased,  she  began  to  wander 
through  the  meadows  and  to  visit  the  com  fields  where  Ernest 
was  daily  busy  with  the  men,  cultivating  the  waving  com,  and 
soon  she  became  interested  in  watching  the  varied  crops  in 
their  wonderful  growth  and  the  increasing  splendours  of  the 


Mr.  Jettfk  Kt^  Turn*  Fanur 


n 


weil-truited  oichardi.  Then  ihe  gndually  piuhed  (artlier  into 
the  deeper  thade  of  the  woodUod  with  it<  munnuriog  pioet 
and  bwchet  and  ample  undenrood,  folli>wing  through  it*  depthi 
the  purttng  cieelc,  deep  hidden  b  the  tangled  cedan,  and  came 
home  laden  with  watercreu,  ferns,  manb  marigoldi  and  other 
woodland  treaaum.  Responsive  to  Nature's  allurements, 
Fanny  revelled  "\  every  new-found  flower  and  moss  and,  soon, 
forgetting  she  had  been  an  invalid,  rejoiced  her  father  on  his 
week-end  \-isit5  with  the  abundant  evidences  of  a  returning 
strength  and  of  a  rapid  improvement  in  her  appearance  of  health 
and  with  an  outburst  of  her  old-time  joyous  spirit. 

But  soon,  all  too  soon,  the  nights  lengthened  and  the  summer 
sped  away  and  Mr.  Keeler  awaited  with  anxiety  and  some  alarm 
for  what  the  coming  autumn  and  winter  nights  might  have  in 
store  for  his  son  and  daughter.  Nevertheless,  the  autumn  came 
and  with  it  the  generous,  even  bountiful  gifts  of  Mother  Earth. 
The  evenings  were  calm  and  serene,  wrapped  in  that  odorous 
haie  which  marks  the  'fall'  of  the  leaves,  with  the  warm 
vapours  wafted  in  from  the  now  warm  lake  waters  which,  pass- 
ng  over  the  cooling  land,  made  that  wonderful,  long  autumn 
season  near  the  Great  L4ike  shorcii,  delaying  often  into  late 
November  the  killing  frosts  and  creating  an  ideal  climate  for 
the  ripening,  tinting  and  maturing  of  the  apples  of  those  veri- 
table Hesperidean  gardens  of  Canada.  But  now  and  then  came 
the  li^t  frosts  to  aid  in  perfecting  Nature's  treasures,  and 
with  them  the  tinting  of  the  birches,  beeches  and  maples. 
Ernest  and  his  men  were  now  busily  engaged  in  picking  the  lus- 
cious fruits,  having  already  gathered  for  the  cannery  the  green 
com  and  the  ripe  tomatoes  hanging  in  their  crimson  profusion 
from  the  drooping  vines. 

The  Cooperative  Association  formed  in  the  spring  had  done 
well.  Through  Mr.  Keeler's  efforts  the  railway  had  put  in  a 
"siding,"  and  flag-station  while  the  association  had  erected  a 
large  storehouse  to  which  the  fanuers  brought  their  fruits, 
which  there  were  carefully  sorted,  graded  and  packed  in  the 
finest  type  of  modem  box,  to  be  sent  in  car-lots  wherever  called 
for;  but  especially  to  Winnipeg  to  be  handled  by  one  of  Mr. 
Keeler's  travellers  who  had  arranged  for  their  sale  direct  to 
retailers  there  and  in  other  western  cities.    An  expert  picker 


MKIOCOPV   IBOIUTION   TBT   OMIT 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  3) 


1.0 


I.I 


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APPLIED  IM/OE     Inc 

1653  Eait   Main  SIfnI 

R«h«ll«f,   Nti.  York        U609      USA 

(716)   *B2  -  0300  -  f^mw 

(71«)   168 'MS9  -Fo> 


78 


The  lUumiruttion  qf  Jote-ph  Keeler,  Esq. 


and  packer  had  been  empk^ed  by  the  associatk)n,  a  man  psr- 
sonally  interested  in  the  success  of  the  work,  who  had  marked  on 
each  package  the  brand  of  the  association,  the  grade  and  the 
grower's  name,  thus  banning  a  system  which  was  soon  to  bring 
credit  to  a  district  long  criticised  as  unprogressive.  Joseph 
Keeler  had  too  long  known  and  helped  to  evolve  the  refine- 
ments of  city  trade  not  to  realise  that  what  the  association  had 
already  done  was  but  the  beginning  of  what  an  up-to-date  and 
critical  trade  demanded.  Satisfied  as  he  was  with  the  first  sea- 
son's business,  he  saw  that  with  more  varied  and  more  refined 
products,  of  course  more  labour  would  be  demanded,  if  the 
highest  success  was  to  be  secured. 

The  crisp  evening  breezes  of  late  October  had  now  succeeded 
the  September  stillness  and  the  whole  country-aide  was  alive 
with  the  n<ttBe  of  the  apple-picking  gangs  in  the  orchards,  where 
the  leaves  were  now  shrivelled  and  falling  from  branches  bend- 
ing with  the  ruddy  or  golden  loads  of  perfect  winter  fruit.  Mr. 
I^eler*s  heart  bounded  with  delight,  as  one  Saturday  he  strayed 
through  the  orchards  fra,<!rant  with  the  flavours  of  ripened  fruit, 
crushing  the  falling  leave's  which  marked  the  completion  of  the 
growing  season.  Nature  seemed  to  say  to  him,  "How  perfect 
is  my  work!  Earth  and  sky,  sun  and  lake  breezes  have  poured 
their  benisons  on  man,  happy  in  the  measure  that  he  learns  to 
take  advantage  of  my  gifts  I" 

But  the  time  had  come  when  Ernest,  straight  and  broad* 
shouldered  with  bronzed  face  and  glancing  eyes,  which  told  of 
the  very  joy  and  dtli^t  in  living,  must  depart  for  the  Agricul- 
tural College,  where  he  now  could  go,  fully  prepared  to  seize 
with  avidity  the  information  supplied  at  lectures  and  demon* 
strations,  the  value  of  which  tus  sunmier  in  the  field  luid  tau^t 
him  to  appreciate. 

The  time  and  other  matters  related  to  his  going  were  being 
discussed  on  the  Saturday  evening  when  Mr.  Keeler  was  present 
in  front  of  the  blazing  log-fire  in  the  old-fashioned  chimney* 
place,  after  he  had  been  wandering  with  John  and  Fanny 
through  the  ordiards  and  the  woods  scented  with  the  smoky 
fragrance  of  fallen  leaves  and  ripened  flowers,  as  they  crackled 
beneath  their  tread.  It  was  very  evident  to  John  that  his  father 
longed  for  the  maintenance  and  continuance  of  the  fortunate 


Mt.  Joseph  Keder  Tum$  Fanner 


79 


oonditionfl  brouj^t  about  by  the  happy  mimmer  at  the  Fann, 
and  especially  did  he  himself  feel  that  he  would  but  poorij'  repay 
his  father's  generous  kindness  in  all  that  had  been  done  for  him- 
self and  for  his  »ister,  Fanny,  who  seemed  almost  another  being, 
did  he  not  at  least  offer  a  solution  of  the  problem.    So  he  said: 

"You  know,  father,  I  have  grown  to  like  the  quiet  life  here, 
idiich  has  been  so  good  for  me,  and  if  Fanny  will  only  stay  I  shall 
be  only  too  glad  to  remain  with  her.  You  know  there  is  that 
timber,  which  you  were  looking  over  today  and  which  you  pro- 
pose to  have  thinned  by  cutting  the  larger  trees  for  lumber,  must 
be  supervised  during  its  removal.  Besides  if  you  intend  to  erect 
a  sugar-house  for  the  maple-sugar  makii  g  from  those  500  trees 
on  the  west  fann  in  the  spring,  someone  must  be  here  to  see  it 
constructed." 

Mr.  Keeler  looked  toward  Fanny,  whose  face,  flushed  with  the 
warm  radiance  from  the  burning  logs,  seemed  to  fairly  glow 
with  a  strange  sweet  beauty  and  calm.  The  girl,  catching 
his  fond,  anxious  look,  came  quietly  over  to  him  and  seating 
herself  on  the  arm  of  his  chair  placed  her  arm  about  his  neck 
and  kissing  him  said; 

*' Father,  you  don't  know  what  Jack  has  said  means  for  me. 
For  weeks  I  have  been  so  longing  to  stay  here  till  I  dream  of  it. 
All  is  fair  and  sweet  and  peaceful,  where  the  lake  and  woods, 
the  growing  golden  com,  and  the  apple-crowned  orchards  have 
all  been  so  good,  bringing  joy,  happiness  and  health  back  to  me. 
But  I  was  afraid  to  speak  for  I  thought  Jack  would  be  worry- 
ing to  get  back  to  Toronto.  O  Jack,  you  dear  splendid  fel- 
low; how  did  you  know  I  wanted  to  stay?" 

Mr.  Keeler  was  quite  overcome  with  joy  and  after  a  moment's 
silence,  said: 

"You  cannot  know  how  happy  you  all  make  me.  You,  John, 
have  at  last  come  to  know  yourself  and  have  learned  that  the 
first  step  toward  happiness  ia  in  giving  rather  than  receiving, 
and  you  need  not  my  thanks  and  blessing  for  what  you  are 
willing  to  do  for  your  sister,  since  it  will  be  equally  a  benefit  to 
yourself.  I  am  sure  that  your  mother  is  getting  to  understand 
and  becoming  reconciled  to  having  you  both  remain  at  the 
Farm,  if  you  will  promise  to  come  up  and  both  spend  Christmas 
with  her.    I  know  that  when  she  sees  you  both  she  will  be  con- 


80  Thi  Ittummatim  cf  Jotejh  KeOer,  Eiq. 

tent  and  will  let  you  come  back  to  what  it  not,  at  least  (or  us,  a 
dieary  country." 

Ernest,  irfio  had  been  «Uent  during  the  conversation,  could 
no  longer  keep  silent,  and  so  started: 

"Jack,  you  old  brick,  it  is  just  too  jolly  for  you  to  stay  and 
take  care  of  the  farm  for  me  wjen  I  am  at  college.  Kemember 
Fan  is  always  going  to  be  my  housekeeper  here,  and  she  can 
only  stay  in  town  at  Christmas  for  I  am  commg  back  here  for 
the  holidays.  Besides  I  want  you  to  get  busy  and  have  the  men 
cut  and  clear  an  acre  up  in  the  pines  there  for  I  am  going  to  have 
a  good  cottage  built  there  for  het  where  she  can  start  next  spring 
her  own  real  garden,  that,  when  the  March  winds  blow,  she  will 
be  warm  and  cosy;  and  amidst 

**  TTbe  Buunliiiiiig  pines  ftiid  hemlocks' 

be  sheltered  wherever  the  breeses  blow. 

"You  know  I  shall  sure  be  back  at'Easter  for  the  sugar-mak- 
ing and  Fan  will  put  on  long  rubber  boots  and  there'll  be  some- 
thing of  a  time,  you  bet." 

"All  right,  my  deah  bhoy,"  said  Jack,  with  a  wink  at  his 
sister,  "I  shall  immediately  proceed  to  carry  your  lordship's 
orders  into  effect.  I  shall  clear  the  lot  and  build  the  sugar- 
house;  Fan  may  put  on  the  long  booU  and  carry  sap,  but  J  shall 
be  in  at  the  sugar-oSI" 


III 


CHAPTER  XVII 


The  Legal  Etolct:on  or  an  Aoricultubist 


m 
."^1 


The  autumn  tints  had  faded  and  the  chilling  winds  had  driven 
the  whirling  leaves  from  the  trees,  while  frosts  and  light  snow- 
falls gave  a  wintry  appearance  to  the  landscape,  dull  with 
November  clouds.  John  Keeler  had  assumed  the  responsibili- 
tics  of  the  Farm,  when  Ernest  had  gone  away  to  college.  Diuing 
the  summer  of  his  moral  convalescence  John  had  tmconsciously 
become  initiated  into  many  matters,  which  belong  to  farming, 
and  now  was  to  be  seen  diuly  engaged  in  seeing  to  the  storing 
of  winter  food  for  the  cattle,  and  in  having  them  properly  housed. 
But  especially  was  he  busy  with  the  work  of  clearing  the  space 
for  Fanny's  new  farm  cottage  and  in  ordering  the  lumber,  v^e 
the  men  were  preparing  the  heavy  timbers  necessary  for  the 
foundation  walls. 

Plans  had  been  gone  over  agfun  and  again  by  Fanny  and  him- 
self, while  a  pleasant  site  with  a  southerly  outlook  over  the  lake 
had  been  cted.  Excavations  were  made,  framing  begun, 
and  soon  '.  gang  of  workmen  were  busy  erecting  the  walls. 
Fanny  was  daily  to  be  seen  viewing  operations,  dressed  in 
wannest  garments,  gaining  daily  rugged  health  in  the  crisp 
wintry  air.  A  splendid  appetite  gave  zest  to  existence,  and 
early  hours  and  deep  slumbers  brought  such  a  sense  of  well- 
being  to  t  he  happy  girl  as  she  had  seldom  before  enjoyed.  Soon 
the  walls  and  roof  were  constructed,  and  the  interior  work  begun. 
The  cottage  was  protected  by  the  tall  pines  to  the  north  and 
east  and  had  a  large  sitting-room  looking  to  the  south,  with  a 
neat  flower-room  to  the  southwest.  From  this  extended  easterly 
an  ample  verandah  with  a  glass  balcony  overitead,  on  to  which 
Fanny*s  sleeping-room  with  French  windows  opened.  She  had 
learned  the  meaning  of  fresh  air,  and  intended  that  her  old  tent- 
life  of  the  summer  should  be  carried  on,  sleeping  in  the  open. 
The  rooms  ever3rwhere  were  lined  with  selected  woods  and  pat- 
terned to  suit  the  young  lady's  fancy;  while  the  workmen, 
81 


8t  The  lUuminalion  0}  Joieph  Heeler,  Etq. 

pleaaed  with  her  ninny  amiles,  were  delighted  to  fulfil  her  every 
wi«h.  Simple  yet  modem  city  conveniencea  were  initalled  from 
kitchen  to  bathroom!  and  JoKph  Keeler  was  greatly  pleaaed  on 
his  occasional  viaits  to  see  his  two  children  revelling  in  the  nov- 
elty of  a  new  home  after  their  own  tastes. 

John  had  to  supervise  the  men  engaged  in  the  varied  employ- 
ments of  the  Farm;  but  his  oSBce  training  made  it  quite  easy  for 
him  to  conduct  both  indoor  and  outdoor  operations  in  a  prompt 
and  business-like  manner.  The  cutting  of  the  timber,  the  draw- 
ing of  the  logs,  the  careful  cutting  and  piling  of  the  brush-wood, 
all  engaged  his  attention,  while  this  outdoor  life  gave  the  strength 
and  tone  to  his  whole  system,  which  made  him  no  longer 
desire  to  indulge  in  habits  and  practices,  now  with  him  a  thing 
of  the  past.  The  several  works  on  agriculture  and  farming 
journals  served  for  his  daily  literature  and  gradually  he  became 
interested  m  farming  as  a  worthy  occupation.  It  was  all  new 
to  him;  but  with  a  student's  habits  he  soon  came  to  understand 
something  of  the  wide  meaning  of  the  science  of  agriculture. 
The  weather,  the  soil,  the  varied  crops  suitable  to  the  locality 
developed  a  growing  capacity  for  observation  of  the  things  of 
Nature,  to  which  he  had  hitherto  been  a  stranger. 

Both  Fanny  and  John  took  much  pleasure  )d  keeping  their 
student  londlo'ii  informed  on  the  weekly  progress  of  operations, 
and  Errcst  ei-tertained  them  with  accounts  of  all  the  things  he 
was  observing  and  learning  r  he  coUege  and  amused  them  by 
relating  the  numerous  improve  ii^-jnts  he  was  going  to  introduce 
during  the  next  season.  Limited  to  their  rural  neighbours,  both 
Fanny  and  John  gradually  found  themselves  getting  on  friendly 
terms  with  all  who,  from  time  to  thne,  almost  timidly,  fotmd 
opportunity  for  visiting  the  new  house  and  examining  with  much 
curiosity  the  household  conveniences  to  which  most  were  stran- 
gers. Such  became,  of  course,  the  occasion  of  much  comment 
in  their  own  homes,  and  unconsciously  each  began  to  think  that 
they  too  might  enjoy  water  laid  on  in  their  houses  and  at  least 
some  of  the  simpler  conveniences,  which  they  saw  would  make 
homelife  more  comfortable  and  enjoyable. 

In  the  summer  months  the  family  had  spent  their  Sundays 
in  enjoying  the  pleasant  scenes  on  lake  and  on  the  Farm;  but 
as  the  weather  grew  wintry  and  stormy  and  acquaintance  ex- 


Th0  Legal  EvoluHon  aj  an  AfricuUuriH  8S 

tended,  Fanny  had  suggested  to  John  that  they  go  to  the  little 
church,  set  in  the  old  graveyard,  given  by  a  former  proprietor 
from  a  comer  of  the  Farm  and  where  almost  a  century *8  "fore- 
fathers of  the  hamlet  sleep."  They  found  the  service  simple 
and  the  popular  hymns  sung  heartily,  even  if  somewhat  grating 
upon  Fanny's  well-trained  ear;  but  it  was  not  long  before  the 
minister,  who  listened  with  delight  *o  her  clear  voice  adding  its 
melody,  had  enquired  whethei  she  it  ould  not  sing  for  them  at  a 
week-night  entertainment.  Of  course  she  complied  with  the 
simple  request,  and  pleased  greatly  the  people  who  were  not 
long  in  urging  that  she  play  the  harmonium  on  Sundays  and 
lead  the  choir.  Ever  ready  to  oblige  she  soon  found  that  she 
could  not  only  interest  herself  but  also  give  pleasure  to  others, 
and  before  the  winter  was  over  she  had  the  choir  trained  in  the 
singing  of  anthems  very  creditably.  Thus  gradually  she  became 
the  centre  of  several  little  activities — even  in  a  dissenting  chapel 
— which  meant  much  for  the  improvement  of  the  young  women 
and  men  whose  opportunities  had  been  so  limited. 

All  the  family  in  Toronto  were  looking  forward  to  the  Christ- 
mas home-coming  from  east  and  west.  Ernest  had  already 
arrived  and  gave  a  boisterous  welcome  to  the  two  farmers 
arriving  on  Christmas  eve,  and  who  were  received  by  Joseph 
Keeler  and  his  wife  with  deep  feelings  of  joy  hitherto  unknown. 
Mrs.  Keeler  had  not  seen  her  two  children  for  months;  but  now 
as  she  gated  upon  her  favourite  son,  strong,  clear-eyed,  with 
elastic  step  and  manly  bearing  and  upon  her  daughter,  rosy 
cheeked,  joyous  and  instinct  with  vigorous  health,  she  broke 
down  and  wept  copious  tears  of  joy  its  she  held  her  to  her  bosom. 
Possibly  for  none  had  these  months  done  more  than  for  Mrs. 
Joseph  Keeler.  She  had  at  lei.i'th  gradually  begun  to  realise 
that  life  has  another  meaning  than  that  which  she  had  hitherto 
gathered  from  it;  and  she  now  went  to  her  husband  and,  kissing 
him,  thanked  him  with  real  gratitude  in  looks  and  words  for 
what  he  had  done  for  them  aU,  so  quietly  and  so  wisely.  The 
practical  Tom  ^aid,  "£vei>lhing  is  turning  out  all  right  as  I 
knew  it  must,"  and  rejoiced  with  the  rest,  while  even  the 
haughty  Maud  condescended  to  join  in  the  common  happiness. 
The  painful  and  serious  soon  gave  way  to  the  joyous  and  merry, 
when  Ernest  demanded  in  his  boisterous,  jolly  way  of  Jack, 


M  Tlu  iUuffltnotum  of  Jotph  Keder,  Etq. 

"How  an  your  cowa?"  mnd  iuuted  on  partkulmn  reguding 
the  health  ol  "FrMky,"  "Jenny,"  "Hoey"  and  "BUcky"— 
all  being  hit  calvei.  Fanny  in  return  had  to  deicribe  in  detail 
the  progreu  of  the  cottage  and  when  she  invited  them  all  to  the 
houK-wanning  in  February,  Eme»t'«  spirita  became  ebullient. 
The  happy  holiday  week  went  by,  only  too  »oon,  with  the 
many  friendi  of  Fanny  calling  and  all  expmaing  delight  at  her 
reitored  health.  Naturally  John  Keeler  was  reserved  and, 
with  a  proper  perception,  felt  that  he  had  yet  to  prove  himself 
and  make  worthy  amends  for  an  unfortunate  past  by  real  deeds 
before  he  could  look  "the  whole  world  in  the  face,"  and  tread 
with  firmness  iU  broad  highway.  As  Ernest  longed  to  see  the 
Farm,  the  improvements  and  the  progress  of  all  its  operations, 
the  happy  party  was  broken  up  after  several  mornings  happily 
qient  by  Fanny  and  her  two  brothers  in  selecting  proper  fur- 
nishings for  the  new  home,  and  the)  three  returned  together, 
Fanny  and  John  sufficiently  gratified  in  enjoying  Ernest's 
exclamations  of  delight  as  he  examined  every  detail  of  the  build- 
ing of  which  he  was  to  be  the  proprietor  and  Fanny  "The  Lady 
of  the  House. "  From  the  cows  and  horses  at  the  bams  to  the 
lumbering  operations  in  the  woods  the  boy  passed,  spending 
every  hour  finding  some  matter  of  interest,  so  that  it  was  with 
much  regret  that  he  tore  himself  away  at  the  end  of  a  week  to 
return  to  his  college  work. 

John  Keeler,  while  spending  his  holiday  in  the  city  quietly, 
had  not  refused  the  friendship  of  those  who  chose  to  call  upon 
him,  and  amongst  such  w^  the  dose  friend  of  Maud,  Miss 
Mary  Morrison,  between  wLom  and  himself  there  had  for  year* 
existed  an  understanding,  based  on  the  mutual  regard  of  children, 
which  might  long  since  have  ripened  into  a  positive  engagement 
had  not  John's  habits,  time  and  again,  made  such  on  her  part 
most  imprudent.  Her  delight  and  pleasure  now  at  finding 
him  on  her  first  call  "clothed  and  in  his  right  mind"  and  re- 
stored to  health,  yet  hesitating  to  express  mori^  than  ordinary 
pleasure  at  seeing  her  again,  were  too  evident  to  John  Keeler, 
whose  face  lighted  with  an  expressive  smile  of  gratitude,  as  the 
kind  girl's  heightene  colour  expressed  her  sympathetic  regard. 
Her  call  lengthened  to  a  visit  and  she  forgot  time,  watching 
his  pleased  face,  as  she  encouraged  him  by  inquiries  to  tell  of  all 


Tht  Ugal  EtaUim  (tf  m  ArrieulhinH  U 

tb«ir  doiiigi,  vhich  ihc  had  beaid  ioiiietliiiig  of  through  Maud, 
tuul  which  kept  Fanny  and  hinueU  »  biuily  engaged  at  the 
Farm,  that  they  were  forgetting  th<>ir  oM  friendi.  John,  for- 
getting hi>  reserve,  became  almoat  eloquent  in  telling  of  the 
many  things  he  had  been  doing,  and  which  so  interested  him 
that  he  never  found  an  idle  moment  or  time  to  grow  weary  of 
rural  life,  though  sometimes,  perhaps,  looking  up  expressively, 
"he  mi^'  leel  k>nely." 

The  young  woman's  beaming  face  toM  him  she  understood: 
but  she  only  said: 

"How  lovely  it  must  be  to  have  so  .luch  to  employ  and 
interest  one  and  to  enjoy  real  life  in  the  corntiy,  instnd  of  the 
vapid  artificialities  they  had  to  endure  in  the  whirl  of  city 
society. " 

More  than  once  they  met  during  the  holidays,  and  before 
John  returned  Miss  Morrison  had  promised  to  pay  Fanny  a 
visit  when  they  should  be  settled  in  their  new  home  and  had  the 
house-warming. 


CHAPTER  XVm 

Hautoh  Da™  Hath  Comt  Aoaik  Down  ok  ihb 
Laks  SnoBE 

life  at  the  F»nn  had  raumed  iU  biuy  routine  uul  by  the  end 
o|  Jinuuy.  Fanny  and  John  were  inrtalled  in  the  now  com- 
pleted  and  coiUy  fumiahed  hoiue.     Inviution.  \vm  iuued  to  a 
few  of  their  moat  intimate  frienda,  and  in  due  time  the  pleaaant 
houM-party  had  arrived  and  for  wveral  day>  a  mildly  hilarioua 
tune  wa.  spent.    John  eacorted  the  parly  through  the  woods  to 
view  the  lumberinr  operations,  and  many  were  the  exdamationa 
of  wonder  and  delight  of  the  city  folk.  a<  they  mw  the  axemen 
dexterously  feU  the  pine  trees,  trim  and  cut  the  logs  and  brush 
and  with  strong  teams  haul  the  timber,  placing  it  in  pUea  ready 
for  sawing.    Here  and  there  on  the  crisp  snow  were  the  foot- 
pnnts  of  foxes,  rabbiU,  squirrels  and  other  wUd  things,  whUe 
now  and  then  the  whirring  partridge  waa  starUed  by  the  new- 
comers.   Every  morning  these  birds  of  the  evergreens  came,  to 
Uie  joy  of  the  visitors,  to  the  euge  of  tho  clearing,  where  aa 
Fanny  8  pets  they  were  accustomed  to  be  fed.    As  the  snow  had 
fallen  m  November,  she  had  noticed  the  few  remaining  biida 
daily  coming  nearer  the  bams  and  house  seeking  for  food,  no 
longer  easUy  obtained  in  the  fieMa  and  woods.    As  the  snow 
^w  deeper  the  partridge  too  wo  jld  be  found  approaching  shyly 
the  hjildings,  and,  susp^tisg  the  cause,  Fanny  threw  crumba 
and  as  they  cinie  again,  she  got  grain  and  soon  waa  pleased  to 
find  them  becoming  morning  \-iaitanta.    Then,  too,  came  the 
snow  buntings,  and  at  tunes  the  cedar  wax-wings  and  grosbeaks, 
which  soon  got  to  know  their  friend  and  foUowed  her  from  the 
farmhouse  to  the  new  cottage.    A  flock  of  crows  had  chaUenged 
their  mtruMon  mto  the  cottage  in  the  pines  and  had  looked  su»- 
pirmusly  upon  its  now  permanent  occupants;  but  they,  always 
wise,  soon  might  be  heard  it  the  breaking  dawn  warning  off  by 
their  caw!  caw!  the  smal'er  birds,  and  only  gave  pUce  to  the 
latter  when  Fanny  went  to  the  verandah  to  feed  them.    The 
T  87 


I 


88  Tin  lUuminaliom  qf  Ji<Mj)k  KtMf,  E<(. 

party  took  long  Wklka  to  tt  the  breakcn  roll  in  on  the  bnuh 
with  ifai  hummoclu  M  ice  piled  high  on  the  ihoie:  while  (gain 
•leigh  bell*  lent  their  plewunt  miuic  to  the  evening  drive  in  the 
bob-aleighi. 

It  aeemed  proper,  too,  that  Fanny  ihould  do  loniething  (or 
her  country  (riendi,  »  a  concert  wa>  arranged  in  the  chun-h  at 
which  the  city  performen  gave  ielectioui  and  mingled  in  pleai- 
ant  convenation  with  their  (armer  acqiiaintawei.  After  a  final 
"party,"  to  which  aome  ol  the  more  immediate  neighbon  were 
invited  to  meet  the  viiitort,  the  latter  regretfully  bade  their 
adieut  and  John  and  Fanny  returned  their  quiet  life,  Min  Morri- 
•on  only  remaining  with  them.  She  had,  during  theee  pawing 
dayi,  obaerved  with  pleasure  the  active  interert  John  took  in 
every  part  of  the  Farm,  and  waa  lurpriwd,  indeed  aitonithed, 
at  the  strong  grasp  shown  of  all  it>  practical  details.  Instead  of 
the  nervous  and  irritable  lawyer  she  had  known,  she  now  bdteld 
a  strong,  calm  ma;.,  seriously  engaged  in  the  business  of  life  with 
an  evident  purpose  of  doing  his  utmost  to  cany  out  his  respon- 
sible task  successfully.  She  found  that  instead  of  performing 
a  perfunctory  duty,  John  Keeler  was  eager  to  learn  everything 
of  farming  operations,  and  she  noticed  that  his  reading  was  espe- 
cially of  works  on  the  practice  and  economics  of  agriculture. 
His  conversation  turned  upon  some  of  the  problems,  which  his 
father  and  the  professor  had  been  so  long  engaged  upon,  and 
John  pointed  out  to  Miss  Morrison  how  backward  agriculture 
had  become,  compared  with  that  in  some  European  countries, 
where  throu^  his  reading  he  had  found  scientific  methodsof  pro- 
duction, distribution  and  selling  fully  developed.  He  spoke  of 
the  low  land  values,  which  were  the  measure  of  the  small  average 
crops  in  this  splendid  climate,  and  said  that  to  reconstruct  agri- 
culture in  the  district  was  a  work  worthy  of  the  highest  kind  of 
intellect  and  training.  He,  too,  pointed  out  the  loss  to  the  dis- 
trict through  so  many  young  men  leaving  the  farms  for  the  city, 
and  felt  sure  that  the  absence  of  the  old-time  spirit  and  energy, 
which  had  marked  the  district  sixty  years  ago,  was  primarily 
due  to  a  failure  of  the  rural  population  to  keep  pace  with  the 
application  of  modem  scientific  methods  as  in  other  fields  of 
human  energy,  and  that  this  must  be  (airly  attributable  to  the 
lack  of  means  and  opportunity  tor  obtaining  exact  knowledge 


Vaieimi  Dof  Butt  Comi  Afi*  m  llu  Lakt  Short       W 

o(  neh  dcvelopmenU  Mid  of  rapital  to  apply  them  to  pro- 
duetion. 

The  evident  determiiuition  o(  John  Keeirr  to  itiit  t  ■erioiu 
put  in  reconitructing  rountry  life  by  introducing  up-to^t« 
methodf,  both  of  production  ud  diitribution  of  farm  producti 
by  encounginft  the  cooperation  already  begun,  arouied  Maiy 
Morrison*!  enthuMum,  until  the  uncooacioualy  waa  led  to  ny: 
"How  iplrndid  luch  an  ideal  ii  and  how  one  muit  wiah  to  labour 
hard  to  lee  it  fulfilled." 

John  waa  encouraged  thua  to  hope  that  ahe  too  might  become 
M  willing  helper  in  luch  a  desirable  work;  but  was  yet  too  unsure 
of  how  fhe  looked  upon  him,  for  him  to  dare  oak  her  to  aiaiat  him 
inhiataak. 

Aa  the  daya  grew  longer,  preparations  were  being  begun  for 
eitended  outdoor  operations  during  the  coming  seaaon;  and  fre- 
quent were  the  converaaticna  with  the  most  progressive  neigh- 
bours as  to. the  possibility  of  establishinga  larger  storehouse,  fitted 
up  with  all  the  modem  appliances  {or  cold  storing,  at  the  seat 
of  product  Q,  the  bulk  of  their  perishable  products  such  as  eggs 
and  butt  ^nd  cheese,  and  latev  their  apples,  instead  of  selling 
them  at  half  price  only  to  be  stored  later  under  less  wholesome 
conditions  in  the  city  He  knew  very  well  the  Urge  city  ware- 
houses, where  great  piles  of  food  supplies  were  heaped  up,  often 
after  their  first  freshness  <  gone,  and  urged  that  the  local 
storage  would  benefit  most  :<  th  producer  and  consumer.  The 
problem  of  obtaining  loca.  capital  proved,  when  attempted, 
somewhat  discouraging;  but  gradually  as  he  obtained  accurate 
estimates  of  the  amount  of  available  produce  within  an  easy 
distance  of  the  warehouse  at  the  railway  siding  and  the  coat  at 
erecting  a  proper  building  and  installing  machinery  he  succeeded 
in  getting  a  fair  number  of  shares  taken  in  a  nOperative  com- 
pany by  several  dosen  fanners  and,  with  this  accomplished,  laid 
the  project  before  his  father.  As  the  idea  was  wholly  in  keeping 
with  Mr.  Joseph  Keeler's  views  and  es  he  saw  in  the  scheme  the 
fulfilment  of  his  hope,  that  John  would  not  only  develop  a  per- 
manent interest  in  rural  affairs  and  show  an  inclination  to  engage 
actively  in  them,  but  also  promote  rural  reconstruction,  he 
readily  promised  to  see  that  any  balance  of  capital  needed  would 
be  forthcoming  to  establish  the  business  on  a  modest  scale,  trust- 


M  The  lUumination  o/  JowpA  Keehr,  Etq. 

ing  that  John's  energies  mi{^t  prove  equal  to  making  it  a  profit- 
able venture,  assisted  by  the  practical  knowledge  of  his  fanner 
associates. 

Agreements  were  then  entered  into  by  which  each  coOperator 
was  to  supply  definite  amounts  of  fann  products  weekly  throu^- 
out  the  year,  each  in  its  special  season  of  abundance;  while  the 
directors  of  the  local  cheese  factory  saw  the  advantage  of  storing 
their  cheese  in  a  cold  warehouse  locally  for  curing,  instead  of  sell- 
ing it  at  a  cent  or  two  of  loss  per  pound  in  the  hot  weather  for 
storage  elsewhere.  Contracts  for  a  cold-storage  warehouse  were 
also  let,  and  John  had  but  little  time  apart  from  his  evenings  to 
devote  to  the  entertainment  of  his  fair  visitor,  who,  without 
knowing  it,  was  soon  entering  with  spirit  into  John*s  schemes. 

The  inherited  instincts  of  two  families  uf  business  people,  with 
John's  legal  knowledge,  made  progress  rapid,  and  Miss  Morrison 
began  to  link,  with  the  projects  for  the  betterment  of  the  district, 
her  future  with  the  man  whom  she  was,  learning  to  admire,  as  she 
had  long  learned  to  love. 

But  the  visit  had  long  outrun  its  intended  length,  and  modesty 
seemed  to  say  to  Mary  Morrison,  that,  if  she  were  not  going  to 
be  a  permanent  resident,  it  was  high  time  for  her  return  home. 
Fanny  had  not  only  played  the  part  of  hostess,  but  had  also  re- 
joiced in  the  many  symptoms  of  a  growing  admiration  and  fond- 
ness on  the  part  of  Mary  Morrison  for  her  brother,  so  that  she 
often  found  occasion  to  retire  early  that  the  two  might  have 
better  opportunity  to  get  to  understand  each  other.  At  last  the 
day  of  departure  was  fixed  by  Miss  Morrison,  and  for  the  last 
time  she  and  John  had  taken  an  extended  tramp  along  the  wind- 
ing logroads  among  the  pines  through  which  the  strong  winds  of 
the  coming  spring  "soughed"  softly,  giving  a  soothing  sense  of 
harmony  and  companionship  between  the  two  lovers  and  all 
their  surroundings.  All  Nature  seemed  ready  to  spring  into  life, 
and  that  nameless,  but  universal,  influence  of  returning  and 
energising  power,  as  truly  a  part  of  the  nature  of  man  as  of  the 
plants  and  animals,  was  crystallising  sentiments  and  longings, 
hitherto  not  fully  analysed,  of  these  two  into  a  strong  pure 
stream  of  love.  Here  and  there  a  wood-pigeon  cooed  its  soft 
words  to  its  mate  and  the  chickadees  chattered  their  encouraging 
note.    The  waters  of  the  creek  in  flood  in  the  cedar  fiats,  rushing 


:iij|. 


Haleyon  Dayt  Have  Come  Again  on  the  Lake  Shore       01 

to  the  Iake»  told  them  of  the  awakened  enei^  of  life,  flowing  free 
and  untrammeled,  and  the  subconKious  contact  of  both  with  all 
stimulated  in  them  the  common  thought  of  a  future  lived  to- 
gether, filled  with  worthy  effort  and  noble  deeds.  Mary  Morri- 
son glowed  with  the  vibrant  force  of  all  this  ferment  of  life  and 
nascent  energy  and,  suddenly  tiuning  to  John,  said: 

"  Isn't  the  mere  sense  of  living  and  being  a  part  of  all  this  new 
world  of  action  splendid  and  enough  to  arouse  one's  highest 
efforts  to  their  utmost  exercise?  It  seems  so  strange,  John,  to 
see  you  the  central  point  and  the  impersonation  of  so  much  ac- 
tivity and  work  going  on  everywhere  aroimd,  and  I  cannot,  when 
with  you,  separate  myself  from  it.  All  seems  so  fresh,  pure  and 
independent  in  such  a  life,  that  one  cannot  but  envy  you  in  your 
determination  to  make  it  your  own." 

Filled  with  a  sudden  emotion  at  this  imexpected  declaration, 
John  stopped,  and  with  difficulty  found  words  to  say: 

"Mary,  it  is  too  much  to  ask  you,  perhaps  too  greatly  influ- 
enced by  the  rushing  waters  and  whispering  pine  trees,  if  you  won't 
help  me  to  cany  out  what  is  daily  becoming  a  pleasure  as  well  as 
an  imperative  duty.    But  won't  you  be  like  Tennyson's  princess, 

"  'My  wifc^  my  life,  O  we  will  walk  thii  worid 
Yoked  in  lU  exerciie  of  noble  end.* 

"You  know  my  whole  past  too  well,  Mary,  for  me  to  refer  to 
it;  but  I  think  you  can  now  be  siu%  of  me,  since  I  feel  so  sure  of 
myself,  and  am  realising  the  full  meaning  of  what  old  Professor 
Bladde  called  his  creed : 

"  Xet  prideful  prieits  do  bsttle  about  creeds: 
That  chuich  ia  mine  whicli  doei  moat  Chiiit-Uke  deeds.' 

"And  that  is  what  my  work  here  is  to  be. 

"We  have  gone  together  too  long,  to  be  ardent  young  lovers; 
btit,  Mary,  if  you  will  only  say  you  will  become  a  part  of  my  life 
and  help  me,  I  can  promise  that,  if  a  life  of  honest  endeavour  can 
pdliate  the  past,  you  will  never,  with  God's  help,  have  cause  to 
regret  that  you  joined  me  to  make  my  chosen  task  easier." 

With  eyes  full  of  joyous  tears,  Mary  looked  full  into  John's 
face,  and,  giving  him  her  hand,  said: 

"  Yea,  John,  I  will  be  your  wife,  if  it  is  going  to  make  your  task 
!" 


M  The  Ittwnination  qf  Joteph  Kteltr,  Etq. 

Side  by  side  in  the  deep  shadows  cast  by  the  tall  pine  trees 
from  the  getting  sun,  flooding  the  inter-spaces  with  a  roseate 
glow,  the  two  silent  loven  walked  through  tiie  winding  pathways 
— a  man  and  woman  grown  to  maturity  of  thought  and  action, 
proud  and  satisfied  in  each  other  with  no  illusions  as  to. the  fu- 
ture, yet,  both  trusting  in  Rabbi  Ben  Eira's  words: 

"Grow  old  alone  wi^  °>et 
The  bMt  H  jct  to  be 

TV  lait  o(  Hie;  for  which  the  flnt  wae  niMle; 
Our  tiaee  am  in  Hie  hand 
Who  aaith.  *A  whole  1  planned; 
Youth  ihowe  but  half;  tiuet  God;  eee  all,  ner  be  afraid.' " 

The  setting  sun  was  bathing  the  flower-room  and,  thrpugh  it, 
the  verandah  in  a  golden  hue  as  Fanny,  now  becoming,  perhaps 
anxiously  curious,  waiting  for  the  late-comers,  met  them  at  the 
door  as  John  was  handing  Miss  Morrison,  their  clasped  hands 
strangely  lingering,  up  the  stone  stepsl  From  the  faces  of  both 
were  reflected  such  placid,  confident  smiles,  that  Fanny  felt  that 
all  she  had  been  longing  and  praying  for,  for  John's  sake,  had  at 
length  come  true;  and  with  open  arms  the  sweet  girl  went  tor- 
ward,  embraced  and  kissed  her  friend,  asking  archly, 

"Am  I  right?"  to  which  Mary  Morrison,  with  swimming  eyes 
could  only  say, 

"Yea,  darling,  John  and  I  are  always  going  to  walk  together, 
now." 

She  could  only  say, 

"How  lovely!"  as  she  threw  her  arms  around  her  brother's 
neck  and  cried  for  very  joy. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


The  Philosophbb's  Stone  Dibcotereo 


The  winter  had  ended  and  the  May  days  had  come,  when  Mr. 
Joseph  Keeler  next  met  the  professor  under  the  old  familiar 
conditions  in  the  library  after  a  stroll  through  the  groimds 
now  odorous  from  flowering  shrubs.  Mr.  Keeler  was  looking  out 
upon  the  world  again  with  a  pardonable  contentment.  The 
last  two  or  more  years'  events  had  brought  out  in  him  qualities, 
which,  before  dormant,  were  now  making  him  view  life  from  a 
broader  and  more  generous  standpoint,  and  causing  the  fine 
type  of  business  man  to  move  amongst  his  fellows  with  a  benig- 
nant countenance,  which  gave  to  his  naturally  dignified  bearing 
a  grace  which  influenced  pleasantly  all  with  whom  he  came  in 
contact. 

From  time  to  time  he  had  chatted  shortly  with  the  professor 
about  his  rural  ventures,  and  tonight  he  was  rehearsing  the 
latest  from  the  Farm.  He  told  of  the  splendid  energy  which 
John  had  developed,  and  of  the  comprehensive  views  be  was 
obtaining  of  the  pressing  needs  of  rural  districts  in  Ontario  and  of 
the  ways  through  which  a  new  prosperity  might  be  brought  to 
them.  He  told  of  John's  investigations  into  Ihe  methods  de- 
veloped in  Europe,  whereby  governments  had  created  agri- 
cultural credits,  through  which  associations  could  obtain 
funds  at  low  rates  of  interest,  necessary  for  new  undertakings  or 
extending  old  ones. 

"What  do  you  think,  professor,  of  the  soundness  of  such  a 
policy  for  Canada?"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "Is  there  any  reason  why 
the  capital  of  governments,  properly  secured,  should  not  be 
loaned  to  such  agricultural  associations?" 

The  professor  replied: 

"Certainly  not,  but  on  the  contrary  there  is  every  reason 
based  on  practice,  why  such  loans  should  be  made  in  the  same 
way  as  railway  grants,  bonuses  to  steel  works,  and  shipping  com- 
panies, since,  even  more  than  these,  they  will  become  at  once 


M  The  lUuminaHon  of  Joaeph  KeeUr^  Esq. 

productive,  through  increased  crops  and  increased  cattle, 
thiou^  better  drainage*  more  labour,  and  better  implementi; 
and,  if  loaned  for  cooperative  undertakings  as  packing  houses 
for  fruit  and  other  storage,  will  insure  more  abundant  and 
better  food  to  the  consumer.  Remember  the  example  of  Den- 
mark we  have  spoken  of  before,  and  compare  the  resources  ci 
reconstructed  Bulgaria  to  maintain  the  struggle  against  effete 
Turkey." 

"Well,**  said  Mr.  Keeler.  "John  has  determined  that  the  con- 
ditions down  on  the  lake  can  and  must  be  improvsd,  and  I  am 
seconding  in  every  way  lus  efforts  to  secure  codperaticm 
amongst  the  fanners;  he  is  succeeding  admirably  in  the  cold- 
storage  company  and  in  seeing  the  old  apathy  disappearing 
and  the  farmers  busy  in  extending  their  acreage  under  culti- 
vation  and  intensifying  the  methods  of  production." 

"Well."  said  the  professor,  "it  is,  indeed,  amazing  that  our 
business  men  have  not  till  now  seemed  to  realize  the  intimate  re- 
lation between  rural  production  and  urban  prosperity,  and  that 
it  is  to  their  personal  interests  to  see  that  just  such  undertakings 
as  yon  have  been  engaged  in  should  be  made  general  through- 
out Ontario?  And  I  am  ashamed  to  say  that,  until  you  brought 
all  the  iacts  before  me  and  have  indicated  the  way  to  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem,  I  too  have  failed  to  realise  either  the  real 
situation  or  the  necessity  for  its  improvement.  Indeed,  I  have 
sadly  failed  in  my  patriotic  duty,  as  an  adopted  Canadian." 

"I  cannot  imagine  anything  more  worthy  of  the  best  energies 
of  a  trained  scholar,  lawyer  and  business-man  like  your  son  is, 
fbun  tAlfing  up  this  work  just  in  the  manner  he  is  doing  and  car- 
rying it  on  with  enthusiasm.  His  personal  influence  must  con- 
."tantly  increase,  and  the  good  which  will  result  will  extend  far 
beyond  the  immediate  field  of  his  operations.  If  other  capable 
men  would  only  take  the  work  up  seriously  in  differ  nt  districts 
and  bring  their  united  influence  and  knowledge  to  bear  on  our 
Legislatures,  we  would  soon  be  seeing  agriculture  developed  into' 
one  of  the  most  lact  sciences.  Let  us  hope  that  the  boys  and 
their  sister  may  continue  to  beautify  their  lives  by  further 
devotion  to  the  splendid  work,  and  that  both  Mrs.  Keeler  and 
yourself  may  derive  nothing  but  the  purest  pleasure  and  satis- 


The  Phiiotopker'a  Stone  Ditcovered 


95 


faction  from  the  financial  and  personal  sacrifice  you  both 
are  making." 

"Ah»  professor,"  said  Mr.  Keeler,  "you  can  scarcely  under* 
stand  how  it  is  not  for  us  a  sacrifice  but  the  solution  of  several 
very  vexing  famil>'  difficulties.  Miss  Fanny,  strong  and  vig- 
ourous  with  renewed  health,  finds  no  day  too  long  for  her  work 
amongst  her  flowers,  birds  and  poultry,  and  in  the  many  matters 
in  which  she  can  assist  her  brothers.  She  is  interested  in  the 
daily,  in  the  greenhouses  and  the  orchards  and  discusses  them  all 
quite  scientifically.  She  delights  in  having  occasional  city 
girl-friends  with  her  and  gets  much  fun  out  of  their  ignorance 
of  affairs  rural  in  which  she  is  now  an  expert,  and  she  is  never 
more  pleased  than  in  pointing  out  matters  of  special  interest  to 
them.  As  for  my  boy,  Ernest,  he  is  happy  and  busy  from  morn- 
ing till  night,  and  is  in  many  ways  showing  the  benefits  of  his 
year  at  the  college;  while  John  has  experienced  a  complete 
revolution,  both  in  his  habits  and  modes  of  thought  and  action. 
He  has  found  himself  and  his  opportunity,  and  instead  of  his 
being  an  anxiet>  to  me,  I  am  confidently  looking  forward  to  his 
being  a  power  for  good  in  his  community  scarcely  to  be  meas- 
lued.  Just  imagine  a  joyous,  prosperous  farming  district  like 
in  the  olden  times,  whence  the  depression  from  imrequited  in- 
dustry will  have  disappeared,  where  the  common  school  educa- 
tion will  be  a  science  devoted  to  illustrating  the  bcttuties  and 
dignity  of  agriculture  as  a  profession,  and  my  children  all  leaders 
in  the  good  work.  Who  knows  how  great  the  good,  how  wide  the 
benefits  both  to  themselves  and  the  community  at  large.  Surely 
all  our  ideals  ought  not  to  be,  and  are  not,  purely  commercial! 
Good  society  in  the  past  was  not  founded  solely  or  even  largely 
upon  money  and  the  influence  it  brings;  and  never  tn  the  past, 
nor  now,  has  it  proved  any  stimulus  to  either  inH- pendence, 
goodness  or  happiness.  The  intense  competitio-^  modern 
business  dwarfs  noble  natures,  suppresses  generou  mpathies 
and  stifles  lofty  ideals.  Society  must  subsist  by  wealth,  but 
ought  not  and  must  not  be  dominated  by  it.  The  *I6y\a  of  the 
King'  ought  to  be  the  catechism  of  every  boy  in  mercantile  life 
and  the  application  of  its  codes  of  honour  should  replace  the 
ethics  which  too  often  govern  in  business  circles." 

And  so  we  must  leave  the  two  good  friends  for  the  time  to 


M  Tlu  lUuminaiim  qf  Jotepk  Ktrier,  £i}. 

their  rconomic  atudies  and  philoaopluc*!  diicuuioiu.  The 
thrae  other  memben  of  the  Keeler  family  itill  under  tlie  family 
root  have  alio  begun  to  lee  the  moic  wrioui  aide  of  life's  dutie*. 
Tom,  during  the  laat  two  years  or  to  liai  been  developing  iplen- 
didly,  taking  on  himself  many  of  the  duties  which  his 
father's  new  undertakings  have  forced  upon  him,  and,  as  the 
raponsible  business  assistant  of  hi*  father,  is  ahoit  ig  a  broad 
grasp  of  the  larger  phases  of  a  successful  business  house.  Even 
the  haughty  Haud,  associating  with  her  generous-hearted, 
piBctical  brother,  is  evincing  some  qualities  of  heart  and  mind 
which  have  hitherto  lain  dormant  and  undiscovered. 

Madam  Keeler,  with  a  deepened  sense  that  in  life  there  are 
contained  many  elements  of  Tragedy  as  of  Comedy,  is  now 
feeling  something  of  its  seriousness,  which  lends  a  real  dignity 
to  her  social  demeanour,  and  as  she  becomes  more  quiet  and 
sedate  her  real  goodness  of  heart  has  an  opportunity  for  its 
active  exercise.  ' 

Fanny  and  Ernest  keep  things  lively  in  all  departments  at 
the  Farm;  the  boy's  unrestrained  enjoyment  in  his  daily  activ- 
ities, based  upon  a  sturdy  young  manhood,  supported  by  his 
sister's  never-failing  happy  disposition,  making  them  favourites 
with  every  employee  and  with  their  kindly  neighboun.  There 
is  nothing  which  they  do  not  encourage  to  make  life  amongst 
their  young  neighbours  more  sociable,  enjoyable  and  elevating; 
while,  supported  by  the  serious  energies  of  John  Keeler,  the 
evoluti'iU  of  farming  along  scientific  and  business  lines  is  stead- 
ily making  headway  in  the  district  and  stamping  its  impress 
upon  every  cooperating  farmer. 

The  mutual  understanding  between  Mary  Morrison  and  John 
Keeler,  which  had  ripened  into  an  "engagement,"  is  being  cul- 
tivated assiduously  by  these  now  serious,  if  not  ardent  lovers, 
and  it  has  become  generally  known  in  their  circle  that  the  wed- 
ding of  these  two,  once  prominent  in  the  giddy  circle  of  Toronto 
society,  is  to  take  place  in  the  coming  winter,  whenever  John's 
now  very  serious  occupation  in  developing  the  new  business 
of  the  cold-storage  warehouse  at  the  Farm  shall  have  become 
less  strenuous.  Polite  Toronto  society,  which  had  at  first 
been  very  critical  as  to  the  wisdom  of  Mary  Morrison's  action 
in  becoming  '*  engaged,"  has  now  begun  to  congratulate  her 


Tlu  fUtonpkm'i  SUmt  Ditamred 


9T 


upon  her  •ppnMchiag  happincai;  while  her  Iwiy  frienda  are  veiy 
curioiu  to  know  what  her  future  movementt  are  to  be  and 
where  they  propoie  to  make  their  future  home.  To  auch,  Mary 
Horriaon  ahraya  replica  with  unruffled  aweetneaa,  yet  with  an 
impreaaiveneaa,  which  preventa  further  remark: 

"That  ahe  propoaea  to  live  where  her  huaband  reaidea,  and 
wlierever  hia  buaineaa  requirea  him/'  and  aaaurea  thrm  with 
a  captivating  amile,  "that  lilce  John 'a  great-great-grandmother, 
they  will  find  hakyon  daya  ever  ahining  upon  them  down  in  tlw 
old  diatrict  of  Prcaqu'Iale  Bay." 


The  End. 


